Quantification And Discrimination Of Lithic Use-Wear: Surface Profile Measurements And Length-Scale Fractal Analysis

This experimental programme employs length-scale analysis of measured profiles to quantitatively discriminate the surface textures of stone flakes manufactured from East Anglian chalk flint used on four contact materials (shell, wood, dry hide and soaked antler). It presents a method for evaluating texture characterization parameters based on their ability to discriminate wear types, and to determine a level of confidence to the discrimination, using the F-test. The results of this experimental work demonstrate that relative lengths, over certain scale ranges, can discriminate the stone tool surface wear profiles produced by the different contact materials.