• Crombé, Philippe
• Cnudde, Veerle
• Kock, Tim De
• Éva, Halbrucker
• Fiers, Géraldine

Abstract

Microwear analysis is an important part of lithic studies as it gives insights into the use of stone tools and indirectly into the activities performed by prehistoric people. However, its success depends on the preservation degree of the archaeological artefacts. Alteration features on lithictoolscomplicatefunctionalanalysis,asthesefeaturespartiallyorcompletelyobscuremicroweartraces.Therefore,alteredlithicartefactsareoftendiscardedfromanalysiswhichcausesapotentialinformationloss.Inordertogainabetterunderstandingoftheintensityofalterationsthatmakesmicroweartracesdifficultornotinterpretable,theseprocessesareinvestigated in experimental set-ups. The focus is on two different alterations, i.e. patination and burning,sinceinthearchaeologicalcollectionsofourresearcharea,theScheldtBasin(Belgium), we predominantly encounter these alterations on Mesolithic lithics. Tool replicas are usedinexperimentsmimickingforageractivities,suchastheprocessingofplant(wood,reed,nettles) and animal material (bone, hide, antler, meat). After these experiments, microwear traces areanalyzedandregistered.Afterward,setsofexperimentaltoolsaresubjectedtodifferentexperimentalalterationprocesses,i.e.eitherburntinafurnaceoropenhearth,orpatinatedinalkaline or acidic lab-environment. Finally, the microwear analysis is repeated and traces before andafteralterationarecompared.Itishopedthatheresultsofthisprojectwillallowabetterintegration of altered artefacts in future microwear studies.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• experiment
• wood
• ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy