USE-WEAR ANALYSIS
The analysis of stone tools using microscopy in order to interpret
the function of the tools. This method involves the examination
of the morphology of the tool, edge fractures caused by use (use
wear) and the alteration of the stone surface caused by use, known
as use wear polish.
This method of analysis involves experimentation by making and
using replicas of stone tools in order to record the use-wear
from known functions (Fischer et
al. 1984). This wear can then be compared with that found
on archaeological material.
Since then a new approach which standardises the methodology
of analysis has been developed. This method involves the systematic
recording of the functionally diagnostic attributes of a tool.
These attributes are described using a standard vocabulary and
the descriptions can be replicated enabling different analysts
to describe the same tools in similar ways. Grace
1989,
Correlations between the variables then allow the analyst to eliminate
some of the possible functions of a tool until the most probable
function is isolated. In some cases the elimination of possible
functions leaves only one that is consistent with all the wear
traces on the tool.
This involves looking at a number of variables including information
on the morphology of the worked edges, edge fractures and rounding
and polish in terms of its distribution and development.
Matching of archeological use wear with experimental use wear
is based on experience but recent developments in the use of expert
systems (Grace 1993, Dries
1994), has made this process more objective which means that
functional reconstructions which include the specific material
the tool was used to work can be made with some confidence.
Use wear is not used simply to produce a list of tool functions
but to approach such questions of subsistence strategy and spatial
arrangements of activity areas on a site. This in turn can be
used to examine social behavior. (Keeley
1980, Grace 1989, Juel
Jensen 1988)
see also
Interpreting the Function
of Stone Tools
Use wear analysis of drill
bits
by Roger Grace
