Extracting residues from stone tools for optical analysis: towards an experiment-based protocol
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Extracting residues from stone tools for optical analysis: towards an experiment-based protocol Dries Cnuts 1
&
Veerle Rots 2
Received: 9 December 2016 / Accepted: 24 February 2017 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017
Abstract The identification of residues is traditionally based on the distinctive morphologies of the residue fragments by means of light microscopy. Most residue fragments are amorphous, in the sense that they lack distinguishing shapes or easily visible structures under reflected light microscopy. Amorphous residues can only be identified by using transmitted light microscopy, which requires the extraction of residues from the tool’s surface. Residues are usually extracted with a pipette or an ultrasonic bath in combination with distilled water. However, a number of researchers avoid residue extraction because it is unclear whether current extraction techniques are representative for the use-related residue that adheres to a flaked stone tool. In this paper, we aim at resolving these methodological uncertainties by critically evaluating current extraction methodologies. Attention is focused on the variation in residue types, their causes of deposition and their adhesion and on the most successful technique for extracting a range of residue types from the stone tool surface. Based on an experimental reference sample in flint, we argue that a stepwise extraction protocol is most successful in providing representative residue extractions and in preventing damage, destruction or loss of residue.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12520-017-0484-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Dries Cnuts [email protected]
1
TraceoLab/Prehistory, University of Liège, Quai Roosevelt 1B (Bât. A4), 4000 Liège, Belgium
2
Chercheur Qualifé du FNRS, TraceoLab/Prehistory, University of Liège, Quai Roosevelt 1B (Bât. A4), 4000 Liège, Belgium
Keywords Residue analysis . Lithics . Extraction . Pipette . Ultrasonic bath . Residue adhesion . Residue cause
Introduction Optical residue analysis has proven to be an effective method for generating high-resolution data that help to solve specific questions in human evolution: uses of stone tools (Briuer 1976; Fullagar 1986; Hardy 2004; Lombard 2005) and grinding stones (Liu et al. 2010; Fullagar et al. 2015), hafting technology (Lombard 2005; Rots et al. 2011), plant use (Fullagar et al. 2006; Summerhayes et al. 2010) or cultivation (Denham et al. 2003) and diet reconstruction (Hardy and Moncel 2011). The method aims at identifying residues adhering to stone tool surfaces by using a combination of optical microscopes (stereomicroscope, metallurgical microscope) and lighting techniques (reflected and transmitted light) (Lombard and Wadley 2007; Fullagar 2014). It has been successfully applied to various time periods and regions (Haslam 2011), but it has also proven to have its limitations because certain residues may have an ambiguous appearance (Wadley et al. 2
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