Many Rocks, many Functions? An experimental Study on different Rock Types

Описание: Felipe Do Nascimento Rodrigues - Centre for Archaeology of the Americas, University of Exeter (UK)

...from Southern Jê history, South Brazil

The study of late Holocene ceramist groups in Brazil has gained interest over recent years thanks to new archaeological frameworks and their interaction with indigenous history. Despite positive developments in material culture studies, stone tools have remained largely undiscussed, usually mentioned only as illustrative typologies, secondary to research questions.
This paper brings lithic studies to the forefront using a multi scale scope to better understand the raw material diversity of stone and its suitabilities during Southern Jê pre-colonial history. For this purpose, a series of task-oriented experiments focusing on the behaviour of these raw materials were conducted. In doing so, several flakes were produced in quartz, cherts and volcanic rocks identified during the assemblage analysis of three sites and utilised with local contact materials. These experiments were then built into a use wear analysis reference collection for a quali-quantitative assessment on how different raw material types were affected by their uses.
Designed to enhance our understanding of lithic artefacts, this research mapped outcrops through fieldwalking surveys confirming that diverse raw materials were locally available, compared the ongoing use wear analysis with the wearing of raw materials during distinct tasks, and created a database containing historical descriptions of stone tool uses to inform experiment design, thereby creating the first reference collection of task-oriented experiments in Southern Jê research.
Although the results presented are preliminary, they provide an invaluable insight into Southern Jê lithics and lay the foundations for the development of future studies with larger sample groups. This paper also addresses the challenges surrounding experimental archaeology in Brazil, hoping to help pave the way for continued research.
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