Experimental use-wear patterns on silcrete, bottle glass and porcelain plate tools

Abstract

Aboriginal people in Australia have used stone tools since first arrival about 65,000 years ago. After permanent European colonisation over 200 years ago people continued to use stone, but also incorporated new, introduced tool materials in novel ways. To understand how these introduced materials supplemented or replaced stone, we need new functional analyses and reference databases that compare experimental use-wear patterns on introduced materials with archaeological use-wear patterns. In the Riverland region of South Australia, silcrete and chert are common tool stones recovered from archaeological sites, but there is also evidence of introduced materials including glazed porcelain and bottle glass. Here, we report experimental use-wear patterns on silcrete, bottle glass and glazed porcelain plate tools. Tasks included processing wood, bone, skin or hide, meat and cattail reeds with a variety of tool motions. Results show that striations are more common on glass and glazed porcelain than on silcrete. The glazed porcelain, glass and silcrete experimental tools register distinctive use-wear patterns for some but not all tasks, and supplement previous functional studies of these materials.