LITHIC MICROWEAR EXPERIMENTATION AND THE FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF A LOWER MAGDALENIAN STONE TOOL ASSEMBLAGE

Abstract

A three-fold approach is taken to the topic of reconstructing patterns of stone tool utilization. First, a summary outline is presented of the 150-year development of functional analyses within the wider study of stone implements. Second, freshly knapped flint and obsidian tools were used in a wide range of tests to document the attributes and patterning of the major categories of microscopic wear traces (micro-chipping, striations, rounding, polish, residues) produced on stone tools that are subjected to both intentional utilization and natural or accidental damage mechanisms. Third, the experimental microwear criteria were applied in a functional analysis of a Lower Magdalenian flint assemblage recently excavated from the cave of Cassegros in southwestern France. The experimental project sought (i) to combine and further develop the so-called low-power (under 100x) and high-power (200-400x) methods of microwear analysis, and (ii) to test on a systematic, controlled basis a wider range of lithic and contact materials than had been reported by previous researchers. The results of 367 tests--249 with flint tools and 118 with obsidian flakes--demonstrated that contrary to the more limited testing published by advocates of the low-power microwear approach, the attributes and patterning of edge microchipping exhibit too much variability to be used as reliable indicators of the important variables of action and worked material. It was found that microwear polishes, striations, and rounding together provided reasonably accurate reflections of the use action and the contact materials involved in the tests. The high-power approach was used to analyze 532 retouched and unretouched flints from the stratigraphically distinctive ocher-stained Magdalenian "0" (zero) level at Cassegros. The sample represents all the excavated flints excluding only those too small to manipulate on the microscope. Although nearly 60% of the used edges in general bore traces from dry hide, microwear evidence for the working of wood, bone, and antler objects is interpreted on ethnographic analogy to indicate that the full range of hide-preparation activities on fresh and dry hides was the principal tool-related activity carried out at Cassegros, primarily within the cave's first chamber.

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