Collaborative Research: Functional Analysis of Lithic Artifacts

人类有能力通过一大套代际传递的工程技能来改变他们的环境。考古记录解决了关于这些技能起源的问题，并可以测试关于它们为什么、何时和在哪里进化的假说。从这一更广泛的背景出发，这个项目考察了史前人类是否发现并传播了一种方法，以增加他们工具箱的各个组件之间的粘合力，这种方法被称为“支持”(钝化)。这项研究通过探索背衬是否影响石器的功能来影响人类的技术进化。该项目通过在受控和实际实验中整合考古学、材料科学、3D形态测量学和粘合剂工程学，迈出了跨学科的一大步。从测试中产生的实验集合将可用于一般研究。这些数据将被永久存储，并可在开放科学框架(OSF)以及通过公共教育和外联活动免费下载。由于背衬石器是在与更广泛的晚更新世人类全球扩散相关的地点经常发现的工具，该项目将促进对决定我们物种如何在地球上殖民的行为和技术适应的理解。背衬石器制造技术指的是将片状边缘(S)以90°或接近90°的角度钝化。后备工具有着悠久的史前历史，已有超过25万年的历史。但为什么要钝化工具制造商本来可以用于各种实际任务的锋利边缘，例如屠宰、雕刻或加工厂材料？一种功能假说是，支持使早期人类能够更有效地将石器固定在木质把手上。如果功能假说是正确的，那么BACKING代表着石器时代粘合工程的一项重大创新。该项目涉及一项系统的、稳健的、可控的实验测试计划，调查作为弹丸武器插件的有背衬的工具与无背衬工具的明显附着力优势。该项目使用四种常见的岩石类型：硅质岩、石英岩、石英岩和热处理的硅酸盐混凝土来建造有支撑和无支撑的工具。然后，这些工具被用于四个对照测试，以了解有支持的工具是否比无支持的薄片具有显著的附着力优势。无论是积极的还是消极的结果，这个项目都对理解人类行为进化、技术和工具的使用产生了影响。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Humans have the capacity to modify their environments through a large set of inter-generationally transmitted engineering skills. The archaeological record addresses questions about the origins of these skills and can test hypotheses about why, when, and where they evolved. Building from this broader context, this project examines whether prehistoric people discovered, and then transmitted, a way to increase adhesion between individual components of their toolkits called “backing” (blunting). This research impacts human technological evolution by exploring if backing influenced stone tool function. This project takes a substantial inter-disciplinary step forward via the integration of archaeology, materials sciences, 3D morphometrics, and adhesive engineering in both controlled and actualistic experiments. The experimental collections generated from tests will be available for general study. The data will be permanently stored and freely accessible for download in the Open Science Framework (OSF) and through public education and outreach activities. Since backed stone tools are frequent implements found at sites relevant to the broader late Pleistocene human global dispersals, this project will advance understanding of the behavioral and technological adaptations that determined how our species came to colonize the planet.The stone tool manufacturing technique of “backing” refers to the blunting of a flake’s edge(s) at, or near to, a 90° angle. Backed tools have a long prehistory, extending over 250,000 years. But why blunt a sharp edge that toolmakers can otherwise use for a variety of practical tasks, such as butchery, engraving, or processing plant material? One functional hypothesis is that backing enabled early humans to attach stone tools more effectively to wooden handles. If the functional hypothesis is true, then backing represents a significant Stone Age innovation in adhesion engineering. This project involves a systematic program of robust, controlled experimental tests investigating the apparent adhesion advantages of backed versus un-backed tools used as projectile weapon inserts. This project constructs backed and un-backed tools using four common rock types: chert, quartz, quartzite, and heat-treated silcrete. These tools are then used in four controlled tests to understand whether backed tools offer significant adhesion advantages over un-backed flakes. Regardless of a positive or negative result, this project has implications for understanding human behavioral evolution, technology, and tool use.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.