Prehistoric tool use and theevolution of landscapes: a 3D
microwear perspective

Wear analysis is used in archaeological research to obtain information on theuse of tools as well as dietary patterns from animal and human teeth.1-3 The
analysis is usually based on the comparison of wear on experimental toolsthat were used in known conditions, and on teeth from people and animals ofknown dietary patterns. These wear pattern references are then compared withthe wear observed on archaeological tools and teeth. The wear characteristics
can tell us about how tools were used and in what pasture conditions(e.g., free-range or intensive, forest, open or degraded environment) animals
grazed. Traditionally, qualitative or semi-quantitative methodologies havebeen used to compare the experimental and archaeological wear traces.
During the last decade, texture analysis of 3D topographies obtained throughConfocal microscopy is providing good results for measuring high precisiondifferences on the characteristics of wear. This offers unique information on
how people behave in Prehistory and the evolution of animal husbandry
practices through time.
CASE STUDY PREHISTORIC TOOL USE AND THE EVOLUTION OF LANDSCAPES:A 3D MICROWEAR PERSPECTIVE

The IMF (Institució Milà iFontanals) belongs to theSpanish National ResearchCouncil (CSIC) and was foundedon 1968. Nowadays, the IMF
is focused on doing researchon 5 areas of humanities:
anthropology, archaeology,medieval studies, history of thescience and musicology.

1

We are using Confocal microscopy for knowing how, when and where cereals
were domesticated in the Near East 11,000 years ago, and how herbivores weremanaged during Late Prehistory and Early historical times. Wild cereals haveto be reaped before maturation to avoid the disarticulation of the ear, while
domestic cereals are cut in full ripeness, so the quantity of water in the stems
is different depending on the characteristics of the cereals. These differencesin humidity induce subtle changes in the texture of the harvesting traces
that are present on the edges of the flint sickles. Measuring the texture of theharvesting use-wear traces on experimental tools used for cutting wild cereals
in natural stands, cultivated wild cereals, domestic cereals and other types ofsiliceous plants has allowed us to build discriminant functions characterizingthese activities (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Harvesting wild cereals in natural stands in Jebel Druze (Sweida, Syria).

Wild cereals (wheat and barley) were harvested in natural stands withsickles made with flint blades at least 23,000 years ago. Our research using
3D Confocal microscopy has revealed that ten millennia later wild cereals
started to be cultivated. This manipulation, year after year, caused the genetic
modifications addressing the appearance of the first domestic species, which
are documented around 10,500 years before present.4 Used on domestic
animals, 3D texture analysis reveals changes in the dietary patterns linked toanimal husbandry regimes (e.g. intensive stalling, free range pasture) as wellas the degree of pressure over pastures. So far, we measured wear texture ona pilot study of modern and archaeological teeth. The teeth of two groups ofmodern goats of known dietary patterns were selected: one group was fed inpastures, while the other one was fed in the forest. Measuring teeth texturesfrom both groups allowed us to obtain an algorithm discriminating them. We
are now using this capacity to know how caprine management changed fromthe Late Bronze Age to Late Antiquity in different archaeological sites.

2CASE STUDY PREHISTORIC TOOL USE AND THE EVOLUTION OF LANDSCAPES:A 3D MICROWEAR PERSPECTIVE

■ Measurements
Some images (Figure 2-5) of wear were obtained using a Sensofar PLu neox
with the 20X brightfield objective. Samples of these images were processed
and measured with the advanced data analysis SensoMAP software. Afterlevelling the surface, we used a spatial filter to separate wear texture fromthe irregularities of the flint surface, which can be considered as backgroundnoise. This filtering is not needed when teeth texture is measured. For
measuring texture, we chose the combination of parameters offering better
discriminatory capacity through discriminant function analysis. Quadratic
discriminant function analysis was used for building a predictive model forgroup membership (Figure 6), while the classification rule of the predictive
analysis is based on Bayes’ theorem.5

Figure 2. Gloss through incident light microscope from harvestingwild cereals in natural stands in Jebel Druze (Sweida, Syria).

Figure 3. Gloss through incident light microscope from harvesting

cultivated wild cereals in Jalès (Ardeche, France).

CASE STUDY PREHISTORIC TOOL USE AND THE EVOLUTION OF LANDSCAPES:A 3D MICROWEAR PERSPECTIVE

3

Figure 4. Gloss through incident light microscope from harvesting

domestic cereals (T. Spelta) in Zureda (Asturias, Spain).

Figure 5. 3D image through Plu neox profilometer from harvesting

domestic cereals (T. Spelta) in Z

Figure 6. Proportion of Prehistoric sickles with green, semi-ripe and ripe cereal harvesting

traces from 12,500 to 9,000 years before present. The evolution of results showsa continuous shift towards cutting riper cereals, corresponding to the processof cereal domestication that took place in the Middle Euphrates region (Syria).
4

CASE STUDY PREHISTORIC TOOL USE AND THE EVOLUTION OF LANDSCAPES:A 3D MICROWEAR PERSPECTIVE

■ Conclusions
The 3D optical profilometer PLu neox in Confocal mode is a very useful
method for the analysis of archaeological objects as it is precise, quick andnon-invasive. In this way, relevant information can be obtained on the natureand characteristics of processes entailing wear (elaboration activities, use,diet, taphonomic alterations…) on surfaces of archaeological materials. The
analysis of Prehistoric sickles recovered from Near Eastern sites dated from13,000 to 9,000 years before present (BP) has shown that wild cereals werebeing cultivated in the Middle Euphrates during the 13th millennium BP.
Our data also suggest that cultivation of wild cereals continued during two
millennia, pointing to this area as a zone where cereal domestication wasdeveloped. We also showed that harvesting unripe (green, Figure 6) cereals
persisted up to the 10th millennium BP, most probably indicating that there
was occasional collection of cereals from wild stands, probably at times of crop
failure.4 In the case of caprine management, we are currently analyzing thedata and results will be published soon.

■ References
1.		 Scott RS, Ungar P S, Bergstrom T S, Brown C A, Grine F E, Teaford M F and Walker
A (2005). Dental microwear texture analysis shows within-species diet variabilityin fossil hominins. Nature 436 693-695.
2.		 Evans AA, Donahue RE (2008). Laser scanning confocal microscopy: a potentialtechnique for the study of lithic microwear. J. Archaeol. Sci. 35, 2223-2230.
3.		 Gill PG, Purnell MA, Crumpton N, Brown KR, Gostling NJ, Stampanoni M andRayfield EJ (2014). Dietary specializations and diversity in feeding ecology of theearliest stem mammals. Nature 512 (7514) 303-5.
4.		 Ibáñez JJ, Anderson PC, González Urquijo JE, and Gibaja J (2016). Cereal
cultivation and domestication as shown by microtexture analysis of sickle gloss
through confocal microscopy. Journal of Archaeological Science 73, 62-81.
5.		 Gelman A, Carlin JB, Stern HS, and Rubin DB (2003). Bayesian Data Analysis.
Second Edition, CRC Press.

CASE STUDY PREHISTORIC TOOL USE AND THE EVOLUTION OF LANDSCAPES:A 3D MICROWEAR PERSPECTIVE

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