A Protocol to Identify the Wear Traces on Osseous Points Used for Fishing
Bibliographic Data
The ability to distinguish osseous points used for hunting in aquatic and terrestrial environments is key to understanding the economies of hunter–gatherer societies (and beyond) and the typological diversity of such tools observed worldwide. In this article, we present an analytical protocol for wear analysis that enables the identification and correct interpretation of microwear traces generated on osseous points as a result of fishing. A starting point of our studies, which were conducted using optical and confocal microscopy, as well as microcomputed tomography (microCT), was the analysis of 72 experimental osseous points, which were used 1208 times in hunting experiments, where the targets were 110 kg of fish of various species and the bodies of terrestrial animals such as red or roe deer. We constructed a classification of wear traces formed on osseous points after fishing based on the results of an analysis of 169 wear observation areas on the barbed points used in such experiments. This classification significantly diverges from previous findings on wear patterns typical of projectile points, where impact fractures play a crucial role. Moreover, it demonstrates that in the case of fishing, other, previously undistinguished categories of microtraces, such as compression traces, osteon structure highlighting, specific polish, and several types of perpendicular linear traces, are of primary importance. We then tested the analytical protocol developed based on this analysis by analyzing 35 prehistoric osseous points from 11 sites located in Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. These studies fully confirmed its effectiveness.
Classification scheme · Fish <Actinopterygii> · Fishing · Identification (biology) · Point (geometry) · Projectile point · Protocol (science) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
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