Use-Wear Analyses on Manos and Hide-Processing Stones

Abstract

Traditionally it has been assumed that the one-hand mano is a tool type that is well defined and easily identified. Recent ethnographic, microscopic, and use-wear analyses, however, cast doubt on this assumption. That some of these stones might have been used to process hides came to light during the artifact analysis stage of the Walpi Archaeological Project, when an informant identified the one-hand manos as an implement he used while making leather for moccasins. This fact has implications for the interpretations given to economic developments of certain cultures, such as Paleo-Indian, Archaic, or Plano.Replication experiments using a mano and a hide-processing stone were conducted to help understand the differences in observed wear patterns on the ethnographically-identified stones. Concepts borrowed from the field of tribology help explain the visible alterations of the worked surface. The result of the ethnographic, microscopic, and experimental analyses is a proposed type description for hide-processing stones.

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