PORTILLO, M., BOFILL, M. MOLIST, M., ALBERT, R.M. 2013 “Phytolith and use-wear functional evidence for grinding stones from the Near East” (original) (raw)

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

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.