Department of Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Department of Human Origins, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2024 Aug 29;14(1):20084. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-70265-1.
Information about the use of stone tools in the past is encoded in the wear patterns left on their surface; however, post-depositional processes can modify and obstruct these traces. One aim in the field of lithic functional analysis is to develop methods to detect and quantify these traces on stone tools. The occlusal fingerprint analysis (OFA) is a well-established method in dental wear studies to virtually simulate dental occlusal (contact between teeth) stroke movements and thus locate and quantify the sequential contact between opposing tooth crowns. Reaching across disciplines, we conducted controlled experiments to test the applicability of the OFA method on stone tools to address the challenge of use-wear quantification and localisation, and therefore the identification of post-depositional wear. Our findings reveal a clear overlap between zones of experimentally produced use-wear and OFA-calculated contact areas. We demonstrate OFA as a potential method to generate models of multiscale use-wear that can be used as references on experimental tools to identify post-depositional surface modifications on stone tool artefacts.
有关过去石器使用情况的信息编码在其表面留下的磨损模式中；然而，沉积后过程会改变和阻碍这些痕迹。石器功能分析领域的一个目标是开发方法来检测和量化石器上的这些痕迹。咬合指纹分析（OFA）是一种在牙齿磨损研究中得到广泛应用的方法，用于虚拟模拟牙齿咬合（牙齿之间的接触）运动，从而定位和量化相对牙冠之间的顺序接触。我们跨越学科界限，进行了对照实验，以测试 OFA 方法在石器上的适用性，以解决使用磨损量化和定位以及因此确定沉积后磨损的挑战。我们的研究结果表明，实验产生的使用磨损区域和 OFA 计算的接触区域之间存在明显的重叠。我们证明 OFA 是一种生成多尺度使用磨损模型的潜在方法，这些模型可用作实验工具上的参考，以识别石器制品上的沉积后表面改性。
