TraceoLab, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
F.R.S.-FNRS (Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique), Bruxelles, Belgium.
PLoS One. 2024 Oct 21;19(10):e0309060. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0309060. eCollection 2024.
Studying taphonomy is crucial for understanding how post-depositional processes impact archaeological remains. This knowledge is pivotal for accurately interpreting the archaeological record. Although taphonomy has a long tradition in archaeology, it is less developed in the analysis of stone tool residues compared to other subdisciplines. To address this gap, our study aims to further develop our understanding of the preservation potential of stone tool residues in temperate environments through actualist experiments. To achieve this, we develop a multidimensional experimental program that features the first biweekly monitoring of weathering processes on residues over a one-year cycle, aiming to understand the short-term effects of weathering immediately after tool discard. Additionally, the program involves the study of longer-term burial and weathering visual effects on different residue types within various previously unexplored depositional environments. This approach allows us to observe the visual effects of both weathering and burial processes and to improve our understanding of the different mechanisms involved in the diagenesis of stone tool residues. While known factors such as microbial activity and soil acidity play a primary role in residue decay, specific stone tool-related factors also prove important, underscoring the need to develop further a specific branch of taphonomy related to stone tool residues. Moreover, our results show that certain residue types may survive within these environments that are often considered as being hostile. A residue analysis of stone tools from temperate contexts may thus contribute unique data that can improve our understanding of past human behaviour. Future research with more diverse residue types and depositional conditions will permit further refinement of our understanding of how taphonomy affects residue preservation and enhance the reliability of residue identifications. As such, stone tool residue analysis will become firmly rooted within broader functional approaches to address how humans use stone tools and how this affects stone tool variability.
研究埋藏学对于理解后沉积过程如何影响考古遗存至关重要。这种知识对于准确解释考古记录至关重要。尽管埋藏学在考古学中有很长的历史，但与其他子学科相比，它在石器残留物分析方面的发展还不够完善。为了解决这一差距，我们的研究旨在通过实证实验进一步了解温带环境中石器残留物的保存潜力。为此，我们开发了一个多维实验方案，首次在一年的周期内对残留物的风化过程进行双周监测，旨在了解工具丢弃后立即风化的短期影响。此外，该方案还涉及研究不同沉积环境中不同残留物类型的长期埋藏和风化的视觉效果。这种方法使我们能够观察风化和埋藏过程的视觉效果，并提高我们对石器残留物成岩作用中涉及的不同机制的理解。虽然已知因素，如微生物活动和土壤酸度在残留物衰变中起主要作用，但特定的石器相关因素也证明是重要的，这强调了需要进一步发展与石器残留物相关的特定埋藏学分支。此外，我们的结果表明，某些残留物类型可能在这些通常被认为是恶劣的环境中存活下来。因此，来自温带背景的石器残留物分析可能会提供独特的数据，从而有助于我们更好地理解过去人类的行为。未来对更多不同类型的残留物和沉积条件的研究将进一步完善我们对埋藏学如何影响残留物保存的理解，并提高残留物识别的可靠性。因此，石器残留物分析将在更广泛的功能方法中得到牢固确立，以解决人类如何使用石器以及这如何影响石器变异性的问题。
