Journal of archaeological science: Reports/Journal of archaeological science: reports, Jun 1, 2024
This paper explores the application of use-wear analysis on flint tools for the reconstruction of... more This paper explores the application of use-wear analysis on flint tools for the reconstruction of bone-working toolkits. Lithics from three Neolithic Vlaardingen Culture (3400–2500 BCE) sites were analysed. We successfully identified toolkits used in the production of bone tools. Combining our results with zooarchaeological data, we conclude that the metapodium technique was only practiced on sites where deer was hunted, and deer bones were thus available. When deer were not, or barely, hunted, bone-working was limited to ad hoc tool production. Widely available cattle metapodia, which could provide a substitute for deer metapodia, especially for the production of chisels, were generally not used to make tools using the metapodium technique. Culturally determined preferences, for the use of specific raw materials, thus determined technological choices made by the inhabitants of these sites.
China is a major centre for rice domestication, where starch grain analysis has been widely appli... more China is a major centre for rice domestication, where starch grain analysis has been widely applied to archaeological grinding tools to gain information about plant use by ancient Chinese societies. However, few rice starch grains have been identified to date. To understand this apparent scarcity of starch grains from rice, dry‐ and wet‐grinding experiments with stone tools were carried out on four types of cereals: rice (Oryza sativa L.), foxtail millet (Setaria italica), Job's tears (Coix lacryma‐jobi L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). The results reveal that dry‐grinding produces significant damage to starches to the point where they may be undetected in archaeological samples, while wet‐grinding causes only slight morphological changes to the starch grains. Moreover, rice starch grains have the most substantial alterations from dry‐grinding, possibly impeding their identification. These findings provide a possible means to explain the relative scarcity of rice starch grain...
In the western Netherlands Neolithic axes are hardly ever found in a complete state. Flint is sca... more In the western Netherlands Neolithic axes are hardly ever found in a complete state. Flint is scarce in this area and when these axes were exhausted, or when they broke during use, they were often re-used as flake cores. Vlaardingen Culture (3400-2500 BC) sites often yield large quantities of flakes and retouched tools made on polished axe fragments. Using an experimental approach, we tried to better understand the importance of recycling of these objects. For the experiments we reconstructed four so-called Buren axes. The experiments provided insights into the usefulness of broken axes as flake cores. It was also demonstrated that flakes struck from axes generally do not have a remnant of a polished surface, indicating that the importance of broken axes as flake cores has so far been underestimated. Furthermore, it was concluded that micro-debitage can successfully be studied to identify areas where broken axes were flaked.
Arctic archaeologists generally accept that Dorset Paleo-Inuit (Tuniit) (c. 800 BC-1300 AD) toolk... more Arctic archaeologists generally accept that Dorset Paleo-Inuit (Tuniit) (c. 800 BC-1300 AD) toolkits exhibit high levels of typological uniformity across Arctic Canada and Greenland. This understanding implies that the artifacts were likely produced according to a standardized set of practices that were somehow reinforced over time and shared across the isolated sites and communities inhabiting this vast region. In contrast, recent theoretical developments in the study of technology highlight that material culture traditions are reproduced through localized social practices, and involve both individual and community-based decision making processes, which would predict a higher level of variability in local manufacture and design features. Our aim in this pilot-study is to test whether Dorset artifacts are, in fact, produced and used in highly standardized ways. We focus on two important tool types crucial to survival in the North: needles and harpoon heads. We sampled assemblages from three Dorset sites located up to 800 km from one other and dating to different Dorset cultural periods. Our results indicate that the sets of tools were made and used in very different ways despite their outward typological similarity. This may reflect the fact that local technological traditions were being learned and practiced differently at each site, though much more work is needed to fully understand the implications of these results in terms of social learning, cultural inheritance, and inter-regional interaction patterns.
Journal of archaeological science: Reports/Journal of archaeological science: reports, Jun 1, 2024
This paper explores the application of use-wear analysis on flint tools for the reconstruction of... more This paper explores the application of use-wear analysis on flint tools for the reconstruction of bone-working toolkits. Lithics from three Neolithic Vlaardingen Culture (3400–2500 BCE) sites were analysed. We successfully identified toolkits used in the production of bone tools. Combining our results with zooarchaeological data, we conclude that the metapodium technique was only practiced on sites where deer was hunted, and deer bones were thus available. When deer were not, or barely, hunted, bone-working was limited to ad hoc tool production. Widely available cattle metapodia, which could provide a substitute for deer metapodia, especially for the production of chisels, were generally not used to make tools using the metapodium technique. Culturally determined preferences, for the use of specific raw materials, thus determined technological choices made by the inhabitants of these sites.
China is a major centre for rice domestication, where starch grain analysis has been widely appli... more China is a major centre for rice domestication, where starch grain analysis has been widely applied to archaeological grinding tools to gain information about plant use by ancient Chinese societies. However, few rice starch grains have been identified to date. To understand this apparent scarcity of starch grains from rice, dry‐ and wet‐grinding experiments with stone tools were carried out on four types of cereals: rice (Oryza sativa L.), foxtail millet (Setaria italica), Job's tears (Coix lacryma‐jobi L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). The results reveal that dry‐grinding produces significant damage to starches to the point where they may be undetected in archaeological samples, while wet‐grinding causes only slight morphological changes to the starch grains. Moreover, rice starch grains have the most substantial alterations from dry‐grinding, possibly impeding their identification. These findings provide a possible means to explain the relative scarcity of rice starch grain...
In the western Netherlands Neolithic axes are hardly ever found in a complete state. Flint is sca... more In the western Netherlands Neolithic axes are hardly ever found in a complete state. Flint is scarce in this area and when these axes were exhausted, or when they broke during use, they were often re-used as flake cores. Vlaardingen Culture (3400-2500 BC) sites often yield large quantities of flakes and retouched tools made on polished axe fragments. Using an experimental approach, we tried to better understand the importance of recycling of these objects. For the experiments we reconstructed four so-called Buren axes. The experiments provided insights into the usefulness of broken axes as flake cores. It was also demonstrated that flakes struck from axes generally do not have a remnant of a polished surface, indicating that the importance of broken axes as flake cores has so far been underestimated. Furthermore, it was concluded that micro-debitage can successfully be studied to identify areas where broken axes were flaked.
Arctic archaeologists generally accept that Dorset Paleo-Inuit (Tuniit) (c. 800 BC-1300 AD) toolk... more Arctic archaeologists generally accept that Dorset Paleo-Inuit (Tuniit) (c. 800 BC-1300 AD) toolkits exhibit high levels of typological uniformity across Arctic Canada and Greenland. This understanding implies that the artifacts were likely produced according to a standardized set of practices that were somehow reinforced over time and shared across the isolated sites and communities inhabiting this vast region. In contrast, recent theoretical developments in the study of technology highlight that material culture traditions are reproduced through localized social practices, and involve both individual and community-based decision making processes, which would predict a higher level of variability in local manufacture and design features. Our aim in this pilot-study is to test whether Dorset artifacts are, in fact, produced and used in highly standardized ways. We focus on two important tool types crucial to survival in the North: needles and harpoon heads. We sampled assemblages from three Dorset sites located up to 800 km from one other and dating to different Dorset cultural periods. Our results indicate that the sets of tools were made and used in very different ways despite their outward typological similarity. This may reflect the fact that local technological traditions were being learned and practiced differently at each site, though much more work is needed to fully understand the implications of these results in terms of social learning, cultural inheritance, and inter-regional interaction patterns.
Subject of this monograph is the Late Neolothic site Zeewijk, that was located in a tidal environ... more Subject of this monograph is the Late Neolothic site Zeewijk, that was located in a tidal environment in the northwest of the Netherlands. The analyses show that Zeewijk was a location where recurrent habitation took place, year-round and intensive, alternating with subsistence activities. It is a permanent mosaic of different assemblages: relocated dwellings, cultivated plots, a large variety of local crafts and the building and partial demolition of a remarkable ritual structure in Zeewijk-East. This points to a community of several families, with ties of kinship both genetic and affinal.
Ornamentation of the body is recurrent across different societies and time periods. It generally ... more Ornamentation of the body is recurrent across different societies and time periods. It generally takes a variety of forms: from objects added to the bodies of people to modifications of the body itself. Body ornamentation is often connected to group identity and cosmology; in addition, ornaments and their exotic raw materials have been circulated through long-distance exchanges. Extensive variability is seen in terms of ornament types, raw materials, and attachment systems. In face of this cross-cultural and long-term importance, alongside material variability, a broad range of instruments of analysis has been used for studying archaeological bodily ornaments, especially beads. In the last 20 years, different scientific approaches have emerged, including optical microscopy at different magnifications, SEM imaging and SEM-EDS, -CT scanning, XRF, morphometrics, etc. Focus has been placed on one or several of ornaments’ traits: raw material characterization and sourcing, morphology, technologies of drilling, carving and grinding, use and its duration, and material preservation. An important concern has been the use of non- or minor destructive analytical techniques. The present session invites papers concerned with the use of scientific approaches to the study of ornaments of different raw materials, such as stones, minerals, shell, bone, teeth, and metal. Focus on one or multiple aspects of ornament biographies are both welcomed. We also encourage a reflection on the different toolkits available for their study and the methodological choices that guided analysis. It is the final aim of the session to discuss the differences, advantages and shortcomings of selected methods of analysis.
Pre-colonial Caribbean jade objects from the National Museum of Denmark Hatt Collection were subj... more Pre-colonial Caribbean jade objects from the National Museum of Denmark Hatt Collection were subjected to a provenance and microwear analysis. Thirty-nine jade celts and bodily ornaments from the US Virgin Islands, i.e., St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John, and five celts from the West Indies of unknown location, St. Vincent, Cuba and the Dominican Republic were analysed.
A comprehensive in-depth examination of jade adornments from St. Croix, combining typo-technological and microwear analysis, is compared to other lithologies used for pre-colonial ornaments. A portable laser ablation system was used to sample jade celts and bodily ornaments on site in a quasi-non-destructive manner. Low-blank trace element and Sr-Nd isotope ratio data were evaluated with a multiclass regression provenance prediction model.
This study demonstrates that the pan-Caribbean exchange of jade raw materials, pre-forms or finished objects during the Ceramic Age (400 BC to AD 1492) occurred on a more complex scale than previously thought involving jade sources in Guatemala, eastern Cuba and the northern Dominican Republic. In addition, the study of ornaments recovered from St. Croix reveals use of specific lithologies suggesting stronger ties to Indigenous communities on Puerto Rico than other Lesser Antillean Islands.
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Papers by Annelou Van Gijn
A comprehensive in-depth examination of jade adornments from St. Croix, combining typo-technological and microwear analysis, is compared to other lithologies used for pre-colonial ornaments. A portable laser ablation system was used to sample jade celts and bodily ornaments on site in a quasi-non-destructive manner. Low-blank trace element and Sr-Nd isotope ratio data were evaluated with a multiclass regression provenance prediction model.
This study demonstrates that the pan-Caribbean exchange of jade raw materials, pre-forms or finished objects during the Ceramic Age (400 BC to AD 1492) occurred on a more complex scale than previously thought involving jade sources in Guatemala, eastern Cuba and the northern Dominican Republic. In addition, the study of ornaments recovered from St. Croix reveals use of specific lithologies suggesting stronger ties to Indigenous communities on Puerto Rico than other Lesser Antillean Islands.