Tool use

T

he earliest stone tools date back to c. 3 million years ago and lithic artefacts provide the longest continuous record of past human behaviour. Stone tools can bear information about human activities in the form of organic and inorganic residue deposits as well as mechanical wear developed on them during their use. TraceoLab specialises in advancing and applying methods for accurately reconstructing past human activities based on these traces.

Our approach combines experimental archaeology with the analysis of archaeological wear and residues using multiple scales of observation. We are interested in different aspects of prehistoric tool use, ranging from subsistence technologies such as hunting weaponry and fire-making toolkits to tools used in different processing and craft activities, including butchery, plant and hide working, manufacture of bone, antler and ivory implements, and processing of mineral materials.

The research questions we ask range from the reconstruction of the day-to-day tasks at individual archaeological sites to the emergence and evolution of different tool forms over time. We are interested in the variability in technical solutions employed by people in different circumstances and the ways in which technologies developed in their natural and social environments.

Chronologically, the assemblages we currently study range from the Early Stone Age and the Lower Palaeolithic to the Mesolithic. We have carried out research in Europe, Africa, and the Near East. In addition to archaeological case studies, we have also participated in ethnoarchaeological research into present-day stone tool use strategies. This work has provided insights into certain functional universals in stone tool design as well as into context-specific strategies in tool production and use. 

Our emphasis on stone tool hafting extends the scope of our research into examining the benefits of different raw materials and hafting systems for different purposes and exploring the development and occurrence of such technical solutions in the global archaeological record. Examining links between the morphological characteristics of stone tools and the tasks for which they were made helps us understand the goals of lithic knapping sequences. This contributes to an understanding of lithic assemblage variability and its behavioural and evolutionary significance. We pay particular focus on stone tool life cycles, which allows us to observe patterns of reuse and recycling and gain perspectives to lithic raw material economy and its links to settlement and task organisation.

Further reading

• Beyries S. & Rots V., 2008 – The contribution of ethno-archaeological macro- and microscopic wear traces to the understanding of archaeological hide-working processes. In: Longo L. & Skakun N. (eds.), “Prehistoric technology” 40 years later: functional studies and the Russian legacy. Oxford: Archaeopress: 21-28
• Binford L.R., 1983 – In pursuit of the past: decoding the archaeological record. London: Thames & Hudson
• Blackwood B., 1950 – The technology of a modern Stone Age people in New Guinea. Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Odell G.H., 1980 – Toward a more behavioral approach to archaeological lithic concentrations. American Antiquity 45: 404-431
• Rots V., 2009 – The functional analysis of the Mousterian and Micoquian assemblages of Sesselfelsgrotte, Germany: aspects of tool use and hafting in the European Late Middle Palaeolithic. Quartär 56: 37-66
• Rots V., 2011 – Tool use and hafting in the Western European Middle Palaeolithic. In: Toussaint M., Di Modica K. & Pirson S. (eds.), Le Paléolithique moyen en Belgique: mélanges Marguerite Ulrix-Closset. Liège: Université de Liége (ERAUL, 128): 277-287
• Rots V., 2013 – Insights into early Middle Palaeolithic tool use and hafting in Western Europe. The functional analysis of level IIa of the early Middle Palaeolithic site of Biache-Saint-Vaast (France). Journal of Archaeological Science 40: 497-506
• Rots V. & Van Peer P., 2006 – Early evidence of complexity in lithic economy: Core-axe production, hafting and use at late Middle Pleistocene site 8-B-11, Sai Island (Sudan). Journal of Archaeological Science 33: 360-371
• Rots V., Van Peer P. & Vermeersch P.M., 2011 – Aspects of tool production, use, and hafting in Palaeolithic assemblages from Northeast Africa. Journal of Human Evolution 60: 637-664
• Rots V. & Williamson B.S., 2004 – Microwear and residue analyses in perspective: the contribution of ethnoarchaeological evidence. Journal of Archaeological Science 31: 1287-1299
• Semenov S.A., 1964 – Prehistoric technology: an experimental study of the oldest tools and artefacts from traces of manufacture and wear. Bath: Adams & Dart
• Taipale N. & Rots V., 2020 – Revisiting Maisières-Canal (Hainaut, BE): new results on tool use and hafting. Notae Praehistoricae 40: 105-127
• Taipale N. & Rots V., 2021 – Every hunter needs a knife: Hafted butchering knives from Maisières-Canal and their effect on lithic assemblage characteristics. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 36: 102874
• Tomasso A. & Rots V., 2021 – Looking into Upper Paleolithic gear: The potential of an integrated techno-economic approach. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 61: 101240
• Tomasso S., 2021 – What is new in the Aterian? A functional view on tool use, hafted stone tool technologies and assemblage variability at Ifri n’Ammar within the context of the Northwest African Middle Stone Age. University of Liège
• Tomasso S., Cnuts D., Coppe J., Geerts F., Van Gils M., De Bie M. & Rots V., 2021 – A closer look at an eroded dune landscape: first functional insights into the Federmessergruppen site of Lommel-Maatheide. Peer Community Journal
• Tomasso S. & Rots V., 2020 – Toolkits in the Aterian technocomplex: new insights based on a use-wear analysis of the assemblages of Ifri n’Ammar. In: Gibaja J., Marreiros J., Mazzucco N. & Clemente I. (eds.), Hunter-gatherers’ tool-kit: a functional perspective. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
• Tydgadt L., 2019 – Étude tracéologique d’artefacts lithiques de la carrière CBR à Harmignies (Mons, Hainaut, BE) : de l’âge de la pierre à l’âge du métal. Notae Praehistoricae 39: 45-58
• Van Gijn A., 2008 – Toolkits and technological choices at the Middle Neolithic site of Schipluiden, The Netherlands. In: Longo L. & Skakun N. (eds.), “Prehistoric technology” 40 years later: functional studies and the Russian legacy. Oxford: Archaeopress: 217-225
• Wierer U., Arrighi S., Bertola S., Kaufmann G., Baumgarten B., Pedrotti A., Pernter P. & Pelegrin J., 2018 – The Iceman’s lithic toolkit: raw material, technology, typology and use. PLoS ONE 13: e0198292