BOFILL, M., PROCOPIOU, H., VARGIOLU, R., ZAHOUANI, H. 2013 “Use-wear analysis of Near Eastern prehistoric Grinding stones” (original) (raw)

In Anderson, P. C., Cheval, C., Durand, A. Regards croisés sur les outils liés au travail des végétaux. An interdisciplinary focus on plant-working tools. XXXIIIe rencontres internationales d’archéologie et d’histoire d’Antibes, Éditions APDCA, Antibes.

AI-generated Abstract

This work investigates the use-wear analysis of prehistoric grinding stones in the Near East, employing interdisciplinary methods that merge archaeological, ethnographic, and historical perspectives. The study highlights technological choices made by ancient populations regarding the harvesting, processing, and creation of plant-based tools and objects, while also exploring the socio-environmental and economic contexts that shaped these practices. By analyzing various archaeological samples and integrating findings from material studies, the research contributes to a deeper understanding of ancient agricultural techniques and technological evolution.

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Analysis of an ethnological grinding tool: what to do with archaeological artefacts?

2005

This paper aims to offer an alternative approach to conventional (and often even non-existent) studies o f m acrolithic or ground stone tools found in archaeological contexts. The analysis o f a unique artefact, a "mano", from an ethnographic context (Dogon country, Mali), is used to develop a methodological model for the daily archaeological research o f this type o f material. From the standpoint that labour processes (which are materialised in archaeology mainly as tools and finished products) are the key elem ents in the understanding o f prehistoric societies, we propose a methodology which integrates use-wear analysis (addressing the participation o f the tool in the productive cycle) and residue analysis (allowing an understanding o f the processed good). The combination o f both techniques should allow us to make evident a series o f materials and working processes that have hardly been documented in the archaeological record until now, or even remain unknown.

IDENTIFICATION OF THE “BEATER AND ANVIL” TECHNIQUE IN NEOLITHIC CONTEXTS: EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH, 2005

L'objectif de cette contribution est double : elle vise à proposer une méthode d'étude des techniques de façonnage, prenant en compte les données expérimentales et les observations archéologiques. L'identification de la technique du battage est choisie ici pour illustrer l'approche méthodologique concernant la reconnaissance des techniques de façonnage des poteries en archéologie. Les critères expérimentaux caractéristiques de la technique de battage sont exposés, puis comparés aux critères décrits sur la base des observations ethno-archéologiques, et enfin des exemples archéologiques permettent de montrer l'existence de cette technique au Néolithique. En effet, jusqu'à présent l'utilisation de la technique de battage, avec ou sans contre-batte, a très rarement été observée pour les périodes néolithique ou protohistorique. Dans notre étude, la technique du battage a été identifiée sur des poteries du Néolithique final français, sur la base de plusieurs des principaux critères d'identification caractéristiques. Cette technique a été utilisée par les potiers néolithiques de la phase de formation du groupe de Clairvaux (Jura, France) et du facies Cèze-Ardèche de la culture de Ferrières (Ardèche, France). Ces nouveaux résultats confirment de nombreux points communs déjà observés entre ces deux cultures et permettent de discuter de leurs relations sociales.

interpreting traces of near Eastern Neolithic craft activities: an ancestor of the threshing sledge for processing domestic crops? By Patricia C. Anderson

Des microtraces d'utilisation complètes particulières, d'aspect abrasé, ont été observées sur certaines lames lustrées du Proche Orient, à partir du néolithique acéramique B final, jusqu'à l'Age du Bronze. A partir d'expériences avec une reconstitution d'un instrument de battage avec silex décrit pour le 3e millénaire, l'observation de traces sur les silex armant les tribulums ethnographiques et d'autres expériences, il est proposé que ces silex archéologiques particuliers ont servi dans un instument nouveau à fonction du tribulum, à surface active doté d'un assemblage de lames de silex. L'instruments aurait servi à hacher les tiges et à égrainer les épis des cultures courantes à ces époques (orge vêtu, blé nu et blé vêtu).

The effect of dehusking on cereals: experimentation for archeobotanical comparison

Anderson, P.C, Cheval, C, Durand, A., An interdisciplinar focus on plant-working tools, Éditions APDCA, Antibes, 2013, 155--168.

Anchor axes: a case-study of wear traces analysis on ethno-archaeological stone tools from Brazil. An anthropological reflection on functional meaning

The anchor axes constitute a peculiar type of polished stone tool widely mentioned in the South-American scientific literature. From the ethnohistorical point of view, the half-moon axes are exclusively ascribed to Jê speaking people present in Brasilian territory and, in particular, in the Central Highplains. The Prehistoric and Ethnographic Museum "L. Pigorini" of Rome keeps the most remarkable collection of seventeen axes coming from this area. The fact that the anchor axes are associated to both archaeological and ethnographic contexts stresses the exceptional nature of such objects thus motivating the techno-functional analysis of the Pigorini group of tools. The analysis carried out on the anchor axes has allowed to distinguish two functional categories: used and unused axes. High power approach has permitted recognizing two categories of worked material on the basis of the analogy with the ethnographic tools: contact with animal tissues or contact with plants. These data have provided new elements in the interpretation of the anchor axes as cultural goods.

Harvesting technology during the Neolithic in South-West Europe

Agriculture technology during the Neolithic is poorly understood. This topic may be a good way to get some information about the spread of agriculture and the conditions in which agriculture was transmitted and practiced. In this paper we collect the data gathered by several specialists in use-wear analysis about harvesting techniques in different Neolithic sites in Spain and SE France. Three different areas can be clearly distinguished with respect to harvesting techniques: 1) the Lyon Gulf (Catalonia-Languedoc-Provence), where sickle blades in parallel insertion were used and where sickle gloss showed different degrees of abrasion, 2) the Levantine Spanish coast, where bent sickles with dented edges were used and sickle gloss was not abraded, and 3) Cantabrian Spain, where no sickles were used for harvesting. We will try to explain this variability by resorting to ecological conditions, socio-economic contexts and intercultural contacts in which the first agriculture was carried out.

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Bio-archaeological Assemblages and Ground Stone Artefacts. Methodological framework and preliminary results

Driessen, J., Schoep, I., Carpentier, F., Crevevoeur, I., Devolder, M., Caignerot-Driessen, F., Hacigüzeller, P., Isaakidou, V., Jusseret, S., Langohr, C., Letesson, Q. & A. Schmitt (eds), Excavations at Sissi II. Preliminary Report on the 2009-2010 Campaigns. AEGIS 04: 211-218, 2011