TY - JOUR
T1 - Pitted stone cobbles in the Mesolithic site of Font del Ros (Southeastern Pre-Pyrenees, Spain)
T2 - Some experimental remarks around a controversial tool type
AU - Roda Gilabert, Xavier
AU - Martínez-Moreno, Jorge
AU - Mora Torcal, Rafael
N1 - Funding Information:
The fieldwork in Font del Ros has been supported by the Servei d’Arqueologia i Paleontologia-Generalitat de Catalunya. Font del Ros is part of the project Human settlement during the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene in the South-eastern Pyrenees funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation ( HAR2010-15002 ). This is a contribution to research group 2009SGR-0729. Xavier Roda Gilabert benefits a pre-doctoral grant (Subprogram FPI-MICINN) of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Rafael Mora acknowledges the support of the ICREA-Academia institution. We are also grateful to Richard Klein and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments that improved this paper.
PY - 2012/5
Y1 - 2012/5
N2 - The presence of cobbles with activity-related marks in the Mesolithic site of Font del Ros (Berga, Spain), and in particular one group of artefacts - pitted stones - raises problematic issues associated with the characterization of percussion activities. Although these artefacts have generated an extensive bibliography on ethological, ethnographic, ethnoarchaeological and archaeological levels, various questions persist in relation to their possible contextual function. In this paper we present the results of an experimental programme in which three types of activities that could create pitted stones are reproduced: bipolar knapping of vein quartz, hazelnut cracking, and hazelnut grinding. The aim of this experimental programme is to describe marks and use-wear traces related to such activities.Results indicate that pit formation is associated with bipolar knapping activity. However, the description of pitted stones related to hazelnut processing presents problems when it comes to define diagnostic attributes.
AB - The presence of cobbles with activity-related marks in the Mesolithic site of Font del Ros (Berga, Spain), and in particular one group of artefacts - pitted stones - raises problematic issues associated with the characterization of percussion activities. Although these artefacts have generated an extensive bibliography on ethological, ethnographic, ethnoarchaeological and archaeological levels, various questions persist in relation to their possible contextual function. In this paper we present the results of an experimental programme in which three types of activities that could create pitted stones are reproduced: bipolar knapping of vein quartz, hazelnut cracking, and hazelnut grinding. The aim of this experimental programme is to describe marks and use-wear traces related to such activities.Results indicate that pit formation is associated with bipolar knapping activity. However, the description of pitted stones related to hazelnut processing presents problems when it comes to define diagnostic attributes.
KW - Experimental archaeology
KW - Ground stone tools
KW - Mesolithic
KW - Percussion tools
KW - Pitted stones
KW - Use-wear
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84857116752&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jas.2011.12.017
DO - 10.1016/j.jas.2011.12.017
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84857116752
VL - 39
SP - 1587
EP - 1598
JO - Journal of Archaeological Science
JF - Journal of Archaeological Science
SN - 0305-4403
IS - 5
ER -