Microwear Analysis

Microwear analysis is the study of microscopic traces or wear on a variety of materials, most specifically teeth (Dental Microwear or just Microwear) and stone tools (Lithic Microwear, Use-Wear, or Traceology).

 

Lithic microwear analysis assesses primarily how stone artefacts were used. While lithic microwear analysts are primarily interested in use-wear, tool use is not the only mechanism that produces wear on stone artefacts. Other cultural processes (handling, transporting, hafting) produce distinctive wear patterns on stone artefacts. 

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Natural processes also produce microscopic surface features on lithic artefacts (Burroni et al., 2002). Natural (non-cultural) modifications generally occur following discard or lost--when the artefact is in the archaeological context--and as a result the term “post-depositional modification” is often used. Natural modifications have long been recognised as capable of imitating, modifying and even obliterating use wear and thus seriously hindering our ability to infer tool use accurately. Yet, one can use these forms of wear to identify their causes, to assess the integrity of site contexts, and to reconstruct the history of site formation processes. [Right: Figure a displays wear produced by cutting plant fiber. Figure b shows the same surface following movement in sediment; note the large fracture scar and nibbling along the edge and the scratching of the polished surface. Figure c shows the surface following further movement in sediment. Note the further scratching and pitting of the polished surface and the new fractures along the edge and the ridge of the large scar (Donahue et al., 2012).]

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For large scale projects where many sites or contexts have been discovered through survey, one can apply ridge wear analysis (a form of lithic microwear analysis that acts as a proxy measure of post-depositional disturbance to an artifact) as one of the key approaches to identify which site localities or sites are in the best condition and thereby provide the most valuable information from archaeological excavation.