EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY &

MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC BONE TOOLS:

SOME BASIC NOTES, ADVICE & EXAMPLES

MILLN MOZOTA HOLGUERAS

E. Tcnicos Especializados OPIS A2
Departamento de Antropologa & Arqueologa
IMF-CSIC
Doctor Vinculado IIIPC
Universidad de Cantabria

Q: What do I really need

to begin with?

You need questions.

Archaeological questions.
Not really a super-question.
But reasonable, realistic questions:
Born during your study of archaeological
materials.
That can actually be solved (or at least
evaluated) through experimentation.

Ok, got questions

What now?
You need planning.
No, really, an experimental program is called
a program for some reason.
Even if you want to do some explorative
experience you need to plan it.
Plan everything: from the obtaining of
materials, to the recording of information, and
of course the physical experimentation itself.

That implies a lot of things

Indeed, lets compartmentalize it:
Archaelogical question(s): You already have it.
Experiment(s): You do that because you need
information, but this information has to be:
Reliable
Verifiable
Communicable

So, you dont need only information, you need data.

Now that this is clear, just think about:
What data do you need to solve your question?
How could you make the experiment(s) to get the data?

A word about the data

It should be organizad in variables (yes, the
statistical ones)
Quantitative is better than qualitative.
Numerical scales are better than presenceabsence.
Meassurements are better that other numerical
data.
But Why?
Because you will be able to do a better work in
your analysis if your data is statistically usable
(and it is used).

About the variables (I)

Independent variables:
Traits that you think are relevant to solve
your archaeological questions.
Example: In my program about Fracturing
bones to obtain retoucher blanks:
Taxonomical origin of bone
Anatomical origin of bone
Bone freshness (green-dry)
General fracture strategy
Etc

About the variables (II)

Dependent variables:
From a conceptual point of view they are the aspects
that change when the independent variables change.
But thay are also the way you want to organize the
data resulting from your experiments.
In the same example as above (Fracturing bones):
Shape of fractures
Number of usable blanks
Number of non-usable fragments
Blanks: Length, Width (both straigh & along cortical
surface), Thickness
Blanks: % of total diaphysis circunference.
Derivative: Indexes, transformations

enough of text and concepts

Lets see some pictures!

Dry vs. green bone: hands on

Dry vs. green bone: processed data

Breaking bones for the marrow fat

vs. retoucher blank production: hands on

Breaking bones for the marrow fat

vs. retoucher blank production: processed data

Use Quina-like retouch

vs. Simple retouch: tools and traces

Use Quina-like retouch

vs. Simple retouch: processed data
Widespread chipping
appears frecuently in
retouchers used for
Quina-like retouch.
Same damage
scarcely appears in
retouchers used for
Simple retouch.

Use Retouching flint

vs. Retouching quartzite: tools and traces

Use Retouching flint

vs. Retouching quartzite: tools and traces
When retouching flint the
number of longitudinal
striations is lower than when
doing quartzite retouching.
And the lenght of linear
impressions is typically longer
than in quartzite retouching
tasks.