The Analysis of Stone Tool Procurement, Production, and Maintenance

Researchers who analyze stone tools and their production debris have made significant progress in understanding the relationship between stone tools and human organizational strategies. Stone tools are understood to be morphologically dynamic throughout their use-lives; the ever-changing morphology of stone tools is intimately associated with the needs of tool users. It also has become apparent to researchers that interpretations of lithic analysis are more productive when the unique contexts and situations for which lithic artifacts were made, used, modified, and ultimately discarded are considered. This article reviews the recent literature on stone tool production with an emphasis on raw material procurement, manufacturing techniques, and tool maintenance processes as they relate to adaptive strategies of toolmakers and users.     

A preliminary study on the role and implication of plate-type iron artifacts in the ancient iron technology of Korea

Special iron objects in the form of a narrow plate with a fan-shaped blade on one or both ends, but with a substantial variation in shape and size, have continually been excavated from ancient historical sites located in the southern part of the Korean peninsula. The frequency and abundance of their excavation imply that they must have played a crucial role in the initial shaping of the Korean iron industry. Little is known, however, of their intended purposes or the exact engineering processes applied in their production. Speculation suggests that they might have been used as currencies or intermediate materials for the making of finished products. This study examined the microstructures of three such iron objects from the Korean Three Kingdoms Period (ca. 300–600 AD). It was determined that they were made of low carbon iron generally containing a number of non-metallic inclusions, with hints of surface carburization particularly at the ends of the plates. These results reveal the likely presence of an iron technology based primarily on the bloomery technique as opposed to the Chinese style of iron-making based on cast iron technology, which was also in use in ancient Korea.     

What is a Burin? Typology,Technology, and Interregional Comparison

Classification of artifacts has long marked a significant edge between theory and practice in archaeology. While considering classification to be a necessary methodological device, most practitioners also recognize that it carries with it built-in assumptions. This essay approaches the issue by way of a specific stone tool type from Old World sites: the burin. By asking “what is a burin?” the study shows the need to reconsider typologies to reflect changes in research questions and progress in dating methods, especially when working with museum collections and secondary data between regions and across national traditions, and the need to study whole collections from the perspective of technological choices.     

文物保护重点科研基地的遴选评估初探

文化遗产保护是我国可持续发展战略的一项重要组成部分,为做好这方面的工作,发挥科学技术对这一领域的支撑和带动作用,国家文物局通过对科研机构的遴选,建立起一批文物保护重点科研基地,搭建开放、共享的创新平台。笔者认为首要的是建立一套科学合理的评估指标体系,通过科学选取评估指标、确定指标权重、采用适当的计算方法,遴选出合适的科研机构,进入到文物保护重点科研基地。     

战国镶红铜鸟兽几何纹青铜壶的保护修复

在现代修复理念的指导下,对一件战国镶红铜鸟兽几何纹青铜壶进行保护修复,通过分析检测与研究、制定修复方案、保护修复处理、装饰工艺等步骤,介绍了现代青铜文物保护修复的基本要求和流程,探讨了此件特殊工艺青铜器的修复工艺,对其精美纹饰和装饰工艺进行赏析,同时提出了保护修复后的保存建议.     

Points and convergent tools in the European Early Middle Palaeolithic site of Payre (SE,France)

The lithic assemblage from the Middle Palaeolithic site of Payre (Rhone Valley, France) contains a large number of convergent tools and pointed tools of various shapes, sizes and retouch types. These were excavated from several archaeological units, dating from marine isotopic stages 8–5, which also yielded human skeletal remains. Consideration of this large tool kit has led to an improved analysis of Middle Palaeolithic tools with two retouched convergent edges. The 350 tools were not described within the classical typological framework, but, rather, from a lithic technological perspective in relation to a discoid debitage. In addition, an initial macroscopic use-wear analysis aided in establishing whether they were used according to their technical and/or morphological features. The Middle Palaeolithic convergent tools from Payre are shown to be quite diversified, and the question of the significance of the retouch and the definition of the various types is addressed. Initial functional results indicate that a clear relationship between shape and function cannot be easily established, and that these tools were used as hand tools. This study contributes to the debate on the use of stone tip spears in the Early European Middle Palaeolithic.     

Small shifts in handedness bias during the Early Mesolithic? A reconstruction inferred from Microburin technology in the eastern Italian Alps

This study discusses the existence of a variability recorded in lateralization indexes of proximal microburins, a by-product of the individual manufacture of microliths, in a sample of Sauveterrian sites from the Italian Eastern Alps. At first glance, such variability may appear to support the existence of customary handling, pertaining perhaps to an ensemble of normalized technical procedures accomplished by the members of the human group regardless of site type, context and economic activities. However, plotting the patterns in lateralization index against the regional Sauveterrian chrono-cultural sequence reveals a diverse correlation emerges and indicates how the early settlement phase involved greater functional differentiation among sites used by selected human groups compared with the successive phases, when this pattern vanishes. This trend may correspond to the decrease in lateralization observed on skeletal markers from the Upper Paleolithic to the Mesolithic, linked to the change in technological models and techniques employed in food gathering. The implications of this research at different levels are also discussed.