[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Journal of Archaeological Science
(1999)
26,
797–808
The Origins of Metallurgy: Distinguishing Stone from Metal
Cut-marks on Bones from Archaeological Sites
Haskel J. Greeneld*
Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Fletcher Argue 435, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 5V5, Canada
(
Received 12 May 1998, revised manuscript accepted 1 September 1998
)
This paper presents an analytical procedure for identifying and mapping the introduction and spread of metallurgy to
regions based upon the relative frequency of metal versus stone tool slicing cut-marks in butchered animal bone
assemblages. The author conducted experiments to establish the relationship between the edge characteristics of metal
and stone tools that create slicing cut-marks and the marks they produce when applied to bone. The type of tool used
to produce such cut-marks on bone can be identied by taking silicone moulds of slicing cut-marks and analysing them
in a scanning electron microscope. Quantifying the distribution of metal versus stone tool types over time and space
provides insight into the processes underlying the introduction and di
V
bc
) through the end of the Bronze Age (
c.
1000
bc
).
?
1999 Academic Press
Keywords:
METALLURGY, ZOOARCHAEOLOGY, SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY,
CUT-MARKS, EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY.
archaeologists (e.g.,
Branigan, 1974
;
Levy &
Shalev, 1989
;
Muhly, 1985
;
Renfrew, 1969
;
. However, relatively little is known about
the use of early metal tools or their rate of adoption.
Metal tools begin to appear toward the close of the
Neolithic period in the Old World
. During the subsequent
Eneolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages, stone tools dramati-
cally decline in frequency.† It has been commonly
assumed that metal tools take their place. However,
metal tools are relatively rare nds in sites because they
were either recycled by their users, or they deteriorated
in their post-depositional context. Thus, monitoring
the importance of metal tools has heretofore been
restricted to inferential suppositions based on the dis-
appearance of stone tools
or the occasional metal nd. In order to make
more substantive statements about the e
ects of the introduction and use of metal tools upon
cultures.
Most research concerned with the origins of metal-
lurgy has relied upon the analysis of metal artefacts
(e.g.,
. This approach, however, is fraught with a major
problem. The number and types of metal tools from
the earliest metal-using prehistoric periods (Neolithic,
Eneolithic, and Bronze Ages) is quite small (
and almost certainly does
not reect the full range then available (
. One possible interpretation for the archaeological
rarity of metal tools is that it reects the actual
prehistoric rarity of metal tools. Another possible
explanation was that metal was such a precious com-
modity in antiquity that it was not discarded, but used
and reused. In such a scenario, metal would typically
be discarded only when there was too little to salvage,
a condition that would be relatively infrequent, and
most metal would be recycled. This interpretation is
supported by the paucity of discarded broken or worn
tools. Of the metal objects that are found, most are
worn, broken, or nished tools and weapons that were
lost, ritually deposited, or hidden and forgotten. A
V
V
ect of the
erential recovery procedures conducted by Neolithic versus post-
Neolithic prehistorians (cf.
. In gen-
eral, the former have generally used sieves longer and traditionally
pay more attention to chipped stone remains during recovery,
analysis, and publication.
797
0305–4403/99/070797+12 $30.00/0
?
1999 Academic Press
usion of a functional metallurgical technology
for subsistence activities. Prehistoric data from the central Balkans of southeast Europe are presented to illustrate the
utility of the procedure. These data are used to calculate the frequency of use and relative importance of stone and metal
implements over time in the central Balkans, from the introduction of metallurgy during the Late Neolithic
(
c.
3900–3300
Introduction
T
he origins of metallurgy have long intrigued
introduction and use of metal tools on the societies
that adopted them, a more direct source of data must
be sought. It is only when such data are assembled can
hypotheses truly be suggested and tested about the
e
*For correspondence. Tel: 204–474–6332; Fax: 1–204–474–7600;
E-mail: Greenf@cc.umanitoba.ca
†To some extent, the decline of int is probably a function of the
di
V
798 H. J. Greeneld
erences in
cut-marks, it should also be possible (1) to expand our
understanding of the types of butchering tools in each
of the prehistoric periods and (2) to more accurately
calculate the relative importance of stone versus metal
in the subsistence technology. Thus, cut-marks can be
used, in the absence of metal tools, to study the
introduction and spread of metallurgy both within and
between regions (and potentially even within complex
societies) through time.
This investigation was accomplished in two steps:
rst, through the analysis of modern experimental cut-
marks made by the author with metal and stone tools
and, second, by the comparison of the results of the
cut-mark experiments with cut-marks on bones from
prehistoric sites spanning the introduction of metal
tools in the central Balkans. The central Balkans of
southeastern Europe were chosen to supply the com-
parative archaeological material because this is one of
the Old World regions which experienced the auton-
omous development of metallurgy (
. The zooarchaeological remains with
cut-marks used in this study come from two prehistoric
sites: Petnica and Ljuljaci
,
both located in central Serbia. Their data will be used
to demonstrate the utility of the method.
The slicing cut-marks examined in this study are the
residual remains of slaughtering, butchering and skin-
ning activities. A cut-mark is functionally equivalent to
a slice on the bone created by the drawing of a knife (or
dagger) blade across the surface of the bone. It is this
type of cut-mark that is being studied here. A slicing
cut-mark is not to be confused with a chop-mark,
which is created by the impact of a knife, sword, or
axe-like blade. It is also not to be confused with the
slicing-like activity of a saw. The marks produced by
chopping and sawing are easily distinguished from
those of slicing cut-marks
.
V
Previous Research on Later Prehistoric Metal
Versus Stone Tool Cut-marks
There has been a great deal of research over the last 20
years in distinguishing chipped stone tool cut-marks on
bones from other kinds of marks on bones (teeth,
trampling, vascular grooves, roots, preparator-marks,
etc.—e.g.,
. In later
prehistoric/early historic faunal assemblages, slicing
cut-marks are not easily confused with other kinds of
marks commonly studies (e.g., tooth and preparator-
marks). There has been little attention directed at
distinguishing cut-marks made by prehistoric or
historic stone from metal butchering implements.
conducted a series of exper-
iments that initially established the relationship
between the edge characteristics of a series of stone and
metal cutting tools and the marks they produce when
applied to bone. Their experiments were the rst to
indicate that clearly recognizable morphological di
V
erences Between Stone and Metal Tools
There are some fundamental di
V
erences between stone
and metal tools that are relevant to the analysis at
hand. First, experiments with steel knives have shown
them to be superior to stone ake tools in a number of
ways. They are stronger, have greater longevity, retain
their cutting edge longer, are generally sharper, can be
more frequently and extensively sharpened, and re-
quire less energy to cut through greater amounts of
tissue with fewer strokes
.
Second, as a result of the heavy investment in raw
material procurement and manufacture, metal tools
are kept and used for long periods of time and not
quickly discarded. In contrast, chipped stone tools
have a shorter functional life (
. Stone tools
V
er-
ences existed between the cut-marks of metal and stone
knives. The results of their research are supported by
this study.
The most extensive replication study of metal versus
stone-cut tool marks was conducted by
in
a seminal, but relatively unnoticed study. She was the
rst to examine the relative abundance of metal versus
stone tool slicing cut-marks on bone, to do so through
the experimental replication of cut-marks on bone by
a variety of metal and stone tools, and was the rst
to utilize a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to
investigate stone and metal cut-marks in a later
prehistoric context. She developed a series of morpho-
logical criteria for distinguishing stone from metal
tools and types of metal tools using a SEM. Olsen was
mainly concerned with the analysis of bone and antler
artefacts from the British Bronze and Iron Ages, and
was attempting to understand the production tech-
niques for such tools. The results of her study are
corroborated and enhanced by the data presented here.
third possible reason for the paucity of archaeological
metal nds is that early metals were chemically un-
stable and decomposed relatively rapidly under most
conditions. Considering any or all of these reasons,
little direct metallic evidence exists to show the range
of all types of early metal tools
and to determine
exactly when the change-over from a stone- to a
metal-oriented technology took place. Did this tran-
sition take place slowly or rapidly? Was the spread of
metallurgy a relatively uniform process? These are vital
questions which must be answered before one can
address the question of causal priority in the adoption
of metallurgy.
This paper will present the results of new research
into the origins and spread of metallurgy from a new
perspective—the analysis of cut-marks on the bone
remains of animals slaughtered and butchered by metal
and stone implements. It will be shown that cut-marks
on bones made by chipped stone tools during the
butchering of animals can be distinguished from those
made by metal tools. By examining the di
Di
The Origins of Metallurgy 799
have the advantage that their raw material is often
much more readily available and their production
requires less energy and specialized manufacturing
technology. This implies that they can be more easily
produced and were probably more frequently
discarded.
Third, the relative e
cient for
observing the diagnostic criteria. Higher power obser-
vations served to conrm what was already visible at
the lower levels. The magnication used was, to some
extent, dependent on the size of the object under
observation and the range in sample size was a func-
tion of the cut-mark itself. The larger the cut-mark
(width, not length), the lower the power that could be
used.
The angle of observation was also important for the
accurate identication of slicing cut-marks. When
viewed from directly overhead (90
#
power) were su
Y
ciency of stone and metal tools
seems to vary by function. For example,
experiments on int, bronze, and iron sickles
indicate virtually no di
Y
ciency between
sickles of bronze and int.† In contrast,
experiments with stone, bronze, and
steel axes show that bronze is as e
V
erence in e
Y
cient as steel for
felling trees, and that both types of metal axes are more
e
Y
angle), cut-marks
lose their shape and depth. In general, an angle of
75–90
)
Y
cient than stone axes.
was preferred because it enhanced rather than
obscured the morphological characteristics of slicing
cut-marks. The best perspectives were generally from
the side of the specimen where the edge of the mould
was cut and the prole could be brought into view with
the ridge behind it. This allowed the prole to be
accurately drawn. However, the shape of the ridge and
any evidence for ancillary striations were also crucial,
and the SEM often had to be moved to a di
)
ers high resolution
images, with a great depth of eld and a wide range of
magnications. Most or all of the surface of the object
can be brought into focus at once with the SEM
(
. This contrasts with the use of
photomicrographs from an optical microscope where
the curvature of the bone and the depth of many of the
cut-marks inhibit high quality photomicrographs. A
variety of shapes of steel knives and chipped stone
tools were chosen to try to account for the source of
variability in the analysis. Each blade was drawn
across a soft wooden board (pine) in the same direc-
tion, and with the same angle and hand-held pressure.
A soft wood was chosen as the medium, rather than
bone, because it is softer and more likely to accurately
record details of the imprint of the blade during the
cutting process. The problem with conducting the
exercise on bone is that di
V
V
erent
position for their viewing.
erent metal steel knives were used during
the experiment (
. These knives were chosen to
reect a variety of blade shapes, some of which were
similar to metal blade shapes from prehistoric assem-
blages. In general, the metal knife-marks can be
grouped into two categories: at-edged and serrated-
edged blades. Two signicant di
V
erences exist between
the modern sample (used in this study) and prehistoric
assemblages (not used in this study). First, the blades
tend to be narrower in the modern assemblage.
Second, serrated-edged metal blades are absent from
prehistoric assemblages in the central Balkans.
Serrated-blades were included in the study to deter-
mine if they would have a di
V
erent parts of each bone
have varying degrees of hardness and angle (
.
In order to analyse the cut-marks in a SEM, small
moulds of the cut-marks were made.‡ A variety of
magnications were used for viewing the specimens.
V
erent morphology than
smooth blades. The results from each type were quite
di
V
cient than bronze or int sickles
remains to be determined from experimental studies.
‡The SEM chamber accepts relatively small-sized samples (2–3 cm).
Small silicone rubber moulds of each of the experimental cut-marks
were made using Dow Corning Silastic 9161 molding compound and
Cutter Perfourm Light Vinyl Polysiloxane Impression Material (type
I, low viscosity) dental impression compounds. These are extremely
sensitive media for replicating microscopic morphology
. The shape of the mould is the reverse of the original
specimen—it is everted rather than inverted. After curing, the mould
was peeled o
Y
V
erent and are described below.
, attached to an aluminum stub with an epoxy
adhesive, and sputter-coated with gold palladium. Gold palladium
(often mistaken as silver because of its greyish colouration) yields a
better image in the SEM because its grain size is much smaller than
any other metal (Sergio Mejia, University of Manitoba, Faculty of
Geology, Computer Imaging Laboratory—pers. comm., November
1, 1996).
V
Serrated-edged blades
Knives with serrated-edged blades could be divided
into two types: those with high and widely spaced
serration (such as steak and bread cutting knives) and
knives with a low and tightly spaced serration (which
are very saw-like in function). The characteristics of
the high and widely spaced serrated knives
include a wide and shallow cut-mark, with poor
denition of the edges and bottom of the groove.
The edges slope very gradually and unevenly, while the
apex seems to have a wave that weaves across the
surface.
The morphology of the cut-mark was obscured if
the magnication was too high. In general, lower
magnications (30–100
The Experiment: Methodology
A series of experiments comparing metal and stone
tool cut-marks was conducted by the author. The
resultant marks were examined under various levels of
power using a SEM. The SEM o
Results of the Experiment
Steel knife-marks
Twelve di
†Whether iron sickles were more e
Table 1. Summary of results of experimental tests of stone and metal blades on a soft wooden board
Raw
material
Sample
#
Type of instrument
Edge
Angle of V
Comments on knife
Quality of mould
Petnica Inventory #
Steel
1
Scalpel/razor for paper cutting
Flat-sided
Even V-shape
Did not take
groove too narrow
Steel
2
Medical scalpel
Flat-sided
Even V-shape
Not very sharp-used
Did not take,
groove too narrow
Steel
3
Medical scalpel
Flat-sided
Even V-shape
Not very sharp-used; broken tip Did not take,
groove too narrow
Steel
4
Eating (table) knife
Flat-sided
Uneven V-shape
Good
Steel
5
Eating (table) knife
Shallow, tightly
spaced serration
Good
Steel
6
Serrated steak knife
Deep and widely
spaced serration
Good
Steel
7
Bread cutting knife
Deep and widely
spaced serration
Bread cutting side
Good
Steel
8
Bread cutting knife
Small, tightly spaced
serration
Bone cutting side
Good
Steel
9
Kitchen knife with wooden handle Flat-sided
Uneven V-shape
Good
Steel
10
Kitchen knife with plastic handle
Flat-sided
Uneven V-shape
Good
Steel
11
Pocket (folding) knife
Flat-sided
Even V-shape
Large
Good
Steel
12
Pocket (folding) knife
Flat-sided
Even V-shape
Small
Good
Stone
1
Backed short blade
Retouched on one
side
Uneven on one side
and smooth on other
Good
6762
Stone
2
Triple backed short blade
Without retouch
Uneven on one side
and smooth on other
Good
6056
Stone
3
Curved single backed short blade
Without retouch
Uneven on one side
and smooth on other
Good
5099
Stone
4
Triple backed short blade
Without retouch
Uneven on one side
and smooth on other
Good
5613, 5013 or 58
Stone
5
Scraper
Without retouch
Uneven on one side
and smooth on other
Good
6118
Stone
6
Short blade
Without retouch
Uneven on one side
and smooth on other
Good
4976
Stone
7
Long blade
Without retouch
Uneven on one side
and smooth on other
Good
8389
Stone
8
Long blade
Without retouch
Uneven on one side
and smooth on other
Good
5635
Stone
9
Curved short blade
Without retouch
Uneven on one side
and smooth on other
Good
5166
Stone
10
Large scraper
Without retouch
Uneven on one side
and smooth on other
Good
80
Stone
11
Small scraper
Without retouch
Uneven on one side
and smooth on other
Good
94
Stone
12
Long blade fragment
Without retouch
Uneven on one side
and smooth on other
Good
5
 The Origins of Metallurgy 801
Figure 1. SEM photograph of the groove from modern metal knife
8, 25
#
magnication, 80
)
.
Figure 3. SEM photograph of the groove from modern metal knife
9, 200
#
magnication, 80
)
.
Flat-edged blades
This type includes modern scalpels, razors, typical
carbon steel kitchen knives, and most pocket knives.
The cutting edges are sharpened on both sides in order
to maintain their sharpness. Both sides steeply angle at
the same degree toward the cutting edge to form a
V-shape prole
. The bottom of the cut-mark
by metal blades is often slightly attened. Only in
razor-edged blades is the bottom of the blade a sharp
V-shape.
erent sharp-edged chipped stone tool
types were initially selected for the analysis from the
prehistoric assemblage at Petnica
. The stone tools can be typologically
divided into three groups. These are common lithic
types found on Neolithic and post-Neolithic sites in
the central Balkans.† There were six short blades
V
Figure 2. SEM photograph of the groove from modern metal knife
7, 206
#
magnication, 75
)
.
†The artefacts from the Petnica assemblage were representative of
the prevalent chipped stone types that morphologically could have
been used for butchering activities. No alternative slicing tool types
were found in the assemblage. It is unlikely that part of the
assemblage is not represented owing to the extensive nature of the
excavations and that the site is a sedentary settlement (
). The names of the tools are based upon the formal typology
used by local prehistorians. The local lithic typology system is based
upon formal morphology rather than use-wear. For example, the
di
erent pattern. The blade is at on one side and scalloped
on the other. It makes a broad and relatively shallow
groove, with sides that gradually slope downwards until
half the depth is reached and then slope at a steeper angle.
The slope is much more gradual on the left side of the
groove than on the right side. This pattern is found on all
serrated knives, but is accentuated on the tightly serrated
knife edges. This pattern would be di
V
erence between short-and long-blades is probably an articial
erence as a result of breakage during use. The tools selected for
this analysis appear to still be functional for butchering activities
since there is no evidence of damage to the slicing edge and they still
possessed sharp edges. They may have been used originally for a
variety of activities but this cannot be determined without extensive
edge-wear analysis.
V
cult to distinguish
from that of some of the stone tool cut-marks because
both sides of the blade do not have the same shape.
Y
Stone blade-marks
Twelve di
The low and tightly spaced serrated knives
have
adi
V
di
    [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]