Quantifying Cereal-Reaping Microwear On Flint Tools: An Experimental Approach

From the earliest Neolithic in the Near East to the last Chalcolithic cultures in Western Europe, certain flint tools have been used as sickles to harvest cereals. Such harvesting tools can be identified through use-wear analyses, because the cutting of herbaceous plants produces specific wear-traces on the working edge of flint blades. The aim of this work is to explore harvesting-driven microwear variability and, more particularly, intensity of use as a governing factor. To achieve this objective, an experiment was designed consisting in the production of flint replicas to be used as harvesting tools, in various controlled conditions. A simple, cost-effective method of quantifying wear-traces by measuring polish extent is developed, requiring only classical use-wear observation equipment. The polish extent shows monotonic correlation with the amount of work, expressed either in terms of time or as the quantity of cereals harvested. Polish extent measurement is therefore proposed as a reliable and powerful descriptor of use intensity.