Collaborative Research: Functional Analysis of Lithic Artifacts

人类有能力通过大量代代相传的工程技能来改变环境。考古记录解决了有关这些技能起源的问题，并可以检验关于它们为什么、何时、在何处进化的假设。从这个更广泛的背景出发，这个项目研究史前人类是否发现并传播了一种方法来增加他们工具包中单个组件之间的附着力，这种方法被称为“背衬”（钝化）。本研究通过探索背景是否影响石器功能来影响人类的技术进化。该项目通过整合考古学、材料科学、3D形态测量学和粘合剂工程，在控制和实际实验中迈出了实质性的跨学科一步。由测试产生的实验收集将可用于一般研究。这些数据将被永久存储，并可通过开放科学框架（OSF）以及公共教育和外联活动免费下载。由于有背的石器是在与更广泛的晚更新世人类全球扩散相关的地点发现的常见工具，该项目将促进对决定我们物种如何殖民地球的行为和技术适应的理解。石制工具的“背衬”技术是指以90°角或接近90°角的角度将薄片的边缘磨钝。有背工具有很长的史前历史，超过25万年。但是为什么要把锋利的刀刃磨钝呢？刀具制造者本来可以用它来完成各种实际任务，比如屠宰、雕刻或加工工厂材料。一种功能假设是，支撑使早期人类能够更有效地将石器固定在木柄上。如果功能假设是正确的，那么支持代表了粘附工程在石器时代的重大创新。该项目包括一个系统的健壮的、受控的实验测试程序，研究作为抛射武器插入物的有背与无背工具的明显粘附优势。该项目使用四种常见的岩石类型：燧石、石英、石英岩和热处理硅结岩，构建了有底和无底工具。然后将这些工具用于四项对照测试，以了解背衬工具是否比未背衬的薄片具有显著的附着力优势。不管结果是积极的还是消极的，这个项目对理解人类行为进化、技术和工具使用都有意义。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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.