Functional studies of prehistoric artefacts and their socio-economic meaning (original) (raw)
Related papers
From artefacts to behaviour: technological analyses in prehistory
Analyses of everyday objects (from pottery, flint, stone, osseous materials) form the basis of all archaeological research, regardless of the period, region, methodological approach or theoretical framework. Although methodology went through significant changes in past decades, especially regarding the importance of experimental and ethnoarchaeological methods, many of these analyses still relied on typology, and the theoretical discussions were less diverse and much slower. In recent years, a concept of technology as a cultural-driven phenomenon has become more widely accepted, largely influenced by the technological approach from the French anthropological and archaeological school. The conceptual paradigm of chaine operatoire is today a commonplace in almost every analysis of artefact manufacture, and it also triggered the creation of numerous different models for analyses from raw material managing through to the use and discard of artefacts. This paper discusses past and current approaches towards technology and its role within the given society. The combination of technological and contextual approach may not only improve our understanding of the artefacts in the context of a given society, their value, importance, function, and meaning, but also can help in starting the discussion on the creation of new theoretical frameworks for social phenomena such as raw material procurement, the organisation of craft production, the labour division, etc. The case studies on the bone industry in the Neolithic Balkans will be used as examples of the possibilities of such approach.
Olle et al 2017 New contributions to the functional analysis of prehistoric tools QI 427 2 5
New contributions to the functional analysis of prehistoric tools Half a century after the publication of Sergej Semenov's fundamental work " Prehistoric Technology " (1964), traceology or microscopic use-wear analysis continues to be the major method for the identification of prehistoric tool use and function. The recognition of macroscopic and microscopic wear traces as well as use-related residues contributes to various important aspects of archaeological research. Among them are relevant questions on site functions and activities carried out in prehistoric settlements or the reconstruction of archaeologically invisible components of complex tool technology, for example hafting and composite tool design. Traceology has significantly contributed to the debate on human behavioural complexity and cultural and cognitive advancement as well as other aspects of the evolution of the human cognitive capacity. Since the establishment of the International Scientific Commission A17 on " Functional studies of prehistoric artefacts and their socioeconomic influence on past societies " , and particularly since the Li ege Congress in 2001, its main activity has been devoted to the complex and manifold role of artefacts in human palaeoecology and the reconstruction of ancient economic systems. This implies that the reconstruction of production and use of artefacts in the past is not just the reenactment of processing of different raw materials , human activities or prehistoric technologies but a matter of understanding the evolution and adaptation of production techniques and their consequences for the people that produced and used the artefacts in a socioeconomic context. The Commission ensures that the greatest possible efforts are made to promote meth-odological advancement and support cutting-edge research that is aimed at widening the informative capacity of use-wear analysis, as well as establishing new data recording and relational database systems. This volume is the result of the Commission's activities during the XVII th UISPP World Congress from 1 to 7 September 2014 in Burgos, Spain, which included the organisation of three sessions dedicated to traceology. The first session was titled " Recent trends and aspects of use-wear analysis and their contribution to the modernization of archaeology " , and was oriented on the theoretical and archaeological reasoning from which a traceological study should stem from. As well it welcomed the discussion on recent innovations aiming to overcome specific problems of the basic meth-odological procedures of the discipline. They included technological enhancements to improve the microscopic observations , as well as combined methodological procedures aimed to face especially difficult archaeological issues. The second session was titled " Traceological work research and experimental work " , and was the one with the highest number of contributions. The presentations focussed on the importance of the experimental works for the study of the prehistoric tool uses, complemented by ethno-graphic observations and technical knowledge. Here archaeologists who work in the field of microwear and residue analysis and related experimental framework presented their current research in order to contribute to methodological debate and the exchange of ideas in the discipline. The third session, entitled " Microscopic determination of hafting technology: use-wear and residues " was specifically devoted to the issue of prehistoric hafted tools, which can be identified through examples of preserved hafts (resulting from very specific sedimentary contexts or because the handle has been produced in less perishable materials such as bone and ant-ler), through use-wear studies describing microwear produced by the haft itself or related to the use of a hafted tool, or after identification of residues used to adhere the tools to the haft. From the overall 63 oral presentations and posters presented during the congress, 21 studies were finally included as articles in the current volume. A first group of papers specifically focused on the experimental procedures, which from the very beginning of the discipline were recognised as of fundamental importance for its development. Skakun and Terekhina (2017) are opening the volume debating on the significance of experimental works in research of the function of ancient tools, and present a comprehensive case study of the experimental-traceological method based on the assemblage from the site of Bodaky. Chabot and colleagues are discussing the concept that functional studies require experimental referential according to the specific context of the sites to be investigated. Therefore, they propose a complete and specialised database based on high magnification use-wear analysis. Such a database is intended to assist the understanding of subsistence activities and to highlight lifeways, social relations and the complexity of the occupation sequence of the Northeast portion of the American continent (Chabot et al., 2017). Pedergnana and Oll e (2017) are discussing the study of use-wear on quartzite by means of an experimental programme based on the sequential monitoring of the process. This has the double aim of constructing a wide reference collection to serve for future interpretation of archaeological quartzite tools, and, at the same time, to improve the comprehension of the mechanical behaviour of such a particular raw material. Methodological issues regarding the combined use of optical microscopes and SEM are also evaluated.
Tools of the Trade: Methods, Techniques and Innovative Approaches in Archaeology
Tools of the Trade presents a collection of academic papers from the 2005 Chacmool archaeological conference which includes a wide range of contributions from international archaeologists, senior professors and students alike. Each chapter focuses on the discussion and application of unique and innovative 'tools' for archaeological analysis and interpretation, including micro- and macro-botanical analysis, experimental study, off-site survey, lithic use-wear, ceramic petrography, DNA analysis, chaines operatoires, space syntax, and Geographic Information Systems. As a collective volume, Tools of the Trade also covers an impressive diversity of geographic regions and time periods, such as Precolumbian Mesoamerica, Plio-Pleistocene Africa, and prehistoric & historic North America. Finally, this volume provides a somewhat introspective look at the origins of tool use, technological development, and the means by which we have become the only species to ask the questions: What does it mean to be us and how can we find out?
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.
New contributions to the functional analysis of prehistoric tools
Quaternary International, 2017
Editorial New contributions to the functional analysis of prehistoric tools Half a century after the publication of Sergej Semenov's fundamental work "Prehistoric Technology" (1964), traceology or microscopic use-wear analysis continues to be the major method for the identification of prehistoric tool use and function. The recognition of macroscopic and microscopic wear traces as well as use-related residues contributes to various important aspects of archaeological research. Among them are relevant questions on site functions and activities carried out in prehistoric settlements or the reconstruction of archaeologically invisible components of complex tool technology, for example hafting and composite tool design. Traceology has significantly contributed to the debate on human behavioural complexity and cultural and cognitive advancement as well as other aspects of the evolution of the human cognitive capacity. Since the establishment of the International Scientific Commission A17 on "Functional studies of prehistoric artefacts and their socioeconomic influence on past societies", and particularly since the Li ege Congress in 2001, its main activity has been devoted to the complex and manifold role of artefacts in human palaeoecology and the reconstruction of ancient economic systems. This implies that the reconstruction of production and use of artefacts in the past is not just the reenactment of processing of different raw materials , human activities or prehistoric technologies but a matter of understanding the evolution and adaptation of production techniques and their consequences for the people that produced and used the artefacts in a socioeconomic context. The Commission ensures that the greatest possible efforts are made to promote meth-odological advancement and support cutting-edge research that is aimed at widening the informative capacity of use-wear analysis, as well as establishing new data recording and relational database systems. This volume is the result of the Commission's activities during the XVII th UISPP World Congress from 1 to 7 September 2014 in Burgos, Spain, which included the organisation of three sessions dedicated to traceology. The first session was titled "Recent trends and aspects of use-wear analysis and their contribution to the modernization of archaeology", and was oriented on the theoretical and archaeological reasoning from which a traceological study should stem from. As well it welcomed the discussion on recent innovations aiming to overcome specific problems of the basic meth-odological procedures of the discipline. They included technological enhancements to improve the microscopic observations , as well as combined methodological procedures aimed to face especially difficult archaeological issues. The second session was titled "Traceological work research and experimental work", and was the one with the highest number of contributions. The presentations focussed on the importance of the experimental works for the study of the prehistoric tool uses, complemented by ethno-graphic observations and technical knowledge. Here archaeologists who work in the field of microwear and residue analysis and related experimental framework presented their current research in order to contribute to methodological debate and the exchange of ideas in the discipline. The third session, entitled "Microscopic determination of hafting technology: use-wear and residues" was specifically devoted to the issue of prehistoric hafted tools, which can be identified through examples of preserved hafts (resulting from very specific sedimentary contexts or because the handle has been produced in less perishable materials such as bone and ant-ler), through use-wear studies describing microwear produced by the haft itself or related to the use of a hafted tool, or after identification of residues used to adhere the tools to the haft. From the overall 63 oral presentations and posters presented during the congress, 21 studies were finally included as articles in the current volume.
Ethno-archaeological data allow a better understanding of the hide-working process including parameters such as haft morphology, tool position and angle of insertion, tool fixation, thickness of the hide worked, the position of the hide/hide-worker, the precision of the gesture, etc. While these kinds of data are difficult to infer for archaeological tools when based on an experimental reference, we believe that it is possible if the analysis is based on a close examination of the wear traces produced in ethnoarchaeological conditions. Based on different ethno-archaeological case studies, we propose criteria that -when applied in functional analyses of archaeological tools -allow a more complete understanding of the parameters involved in the archaeological hide-working process. It is concluded that this research demonstrates the importance of ethno-archaeology as a research tool in functional studies.
Clearly what was needed was some way of identifying activities, some concepts with linked definitions that would permit me to recognize a past activity from empirical techniques that could be used for isolating activity areas. I hoped that if we could see such areas then we might be able to develop concepts and definitions sufficient to identify activities (Binford, 1978. Nunamiut Ethnoarchaeology, 6-7) The main goal of archaeology, through the recognition of the fundamental relationship between stone tools production and human behaviour, should be the reconstruction of relationships between the techniques, economies and social dynamics performed by human groups. Despite the application of numerous and diverse types of methods and the development of many typological schemes, the behavioural significance of lithic production variability has remained mostly unsolved, generating lively discussion in the scientific community. Many of the arguments feeding the never-ending “New Archaeology” debate/s, some of which still relevant in Post-processual theoretical framework, had already been discussed at length by S. A. Semenov, as already embedded in his methodological approach. In fact he discovered and elaborated a proper methodology devoted to the investigation of tools functions by means of the experimental-traceological analyses, which was a real breakthrough in archaeology. The publication (1964) of his seminal work entitled “Prehistoric Technology” in English contributed to the world recognition and rapid development of the experimental and use-wear studies in many countries (for historical reviews see: Cook, Dumont, 1987; Levitt, 1979; Olausson; 1978). This work opened for archaeologists a new and very promising research field. Considering the holistic of his approach it should be stressed that Semenov never considered the results of the study of use-wear traces on ancient tools as a final objective of the research. For him these results were just a step towards the solution of different general questions, including such important issues like the reconstruction of technological development and disclosures about the economic and social consequences of technological progress (Bordes, 1967; 1972; Binford, 1978; Crabtree, 1982; O’Connel, 1995; White, Thomas, 1972).
The importance of retouching tools in the post-Palaeolithic period
Retouching the Palaeolithic: Becoming human and the origins of bone tool technology
is professor at the Georg-August Universität Gottingen and is responsible for the section " Jägerische Archäologie/Schöningen" at the Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege in Hanover since 2013.