DETERMINING STONE TOOL USE - CHEMICAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSES OF RESIDUES ON EXPERIMENTALLY MANUFACTURED STONE TOOLS

We report on experimental and chemical investigation of bamboo and bon e residues on used and unused modern stone tools. Flakes used were man ufactured from a chert nodule and employed in three ways: splitting of bamboo scraping and splintering of bone; others were left unused. Spe cimens were examined using light microscopy, SEM, and EDS elemental an alysis. Tools used to process bamboo and bone exhibited chemically and morphologically distinct bamboo and bone residues. Similarity in morp hology between isolated bamboo mineral and residue on stone tools used to process bamboo indicates the bamboo mineral material adheres to to ol surfaces. All residue morphologies persisted through a treatment de signed to simulate diagenesis, suggesting that processing residues may persist on ancient tools. The elemental signatures of the residues we re slightly altered by the diagenesis treatment, but remained distinct ly different from one another. EDS elemental analysis and SEM examinat ion, when used in conjunction with the chemical signature and morpholo gy of suspected residue sources, has potential to yield definitive ans wers to questions of ancient tool use. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited .