38699
Accession Number
31428
Author
Jahren, A.H.;Toth, N.;Schick, K.;Clark, J.D.;Amundson, R.G.
Title Of Article Chaper
Determining Stone Tool Use: Chemical and Morphological Analyses of Residues on Experimentally Manufactured Stone Tools
Title Of Journal Book
Journal of Archaeological Science
Volume
24
Pages
245-250
Collation
6 p. : ills.
Reference Bibliography
Includes bibliographic references
Language Of Text
English
Literature Type
Serial
Literature Level
Analytic
Abstract
We report on experimental and chemical investigation of bamboo and bone residues on used and unused modern stone tools. Flakes used were manufactured from a chert nodule and employed in three ways: splitting of bamboo, scraping and splintering of bone; others were left unused. Specimens were examined using light microscopy, SEM, and EDS elemental analysis. Tools used to process bamboo and bone exhibited chemically and morphologically distinct bamboo and bone residues. Similarity in morphology between isolated bamboo mineral and residue on stone tools used to process bamboo indicates the bamboo mineral material adheres to tool surfaces. All residue morphologies persisted through a treatment designed to simulate diagenesis, suggesting that processing residues may persist on ancient tools. The elemental signatures of the residues were slightly altered by the diagenesis treatment, but remained distinctly different from one another. EDS elemental analysis and SEM examination, when used in conjunction with the chemical signature and morphology of suspected residue sources, has potential to yield definitive answers to questions of ancient tool use.
Keywords
stone;tool;lithic;bamboo;phytolith;residue;analysis
pub_id
38699