Polish is quantitatively different on quartzite flakes used on different worked materials.

Metrology has been successfully used in the last decade to quantify use-wear on stone tools. Such techniques have been mostly applied to fine-grained rocks (chert), while studies on coarse-grained raw materials have been relatively infrequent. In this study, confocal microscopy was employed to investigate polished surfaces on a coarse-grained lithology, quartzite.

Technological Analysis of the World's Earliest Shamanic Costume: A Multi-Scalar, Experimental Study of a Red Deer Headdress from the Early Holocene Site of Star Carr, North Yorkshire, UK.

Shamanic belief systems represent the first form of religious practice visible within the global archaeological record. Here we report on the earliest known evidence of shamanic costume: modified red deer crania headdresses from the Early Holocene site of Star Carr (c. 11 kya).

New method development in prehistoric stone tool research: evaluating use duration and data analysis protocols.

Lithic microwear is a research field of prehistoric stone tool (lithic) analysis that has been developed with the aim to identify how stone tools were used. It has been shown that laser scanning confocal microscopy has the potential to be a useful quantitative tool in the study of prehistoric stone tool function. In this paper, two important lines of inquiry are investigated: (1) whether the texture of worn surfaces is constant under varying durations of tool use, and (2) the development of rapid objective data analysis protocols.