The Spatial Context of Technology in the Middle Neolithic – a use-wear study on quartz

Abstract

Prehistoric hunter-gatherer settlement sites were arenas for technological practices as the daily and physical context where technological processes took place. In this perspective, archaeological analyses of site contexts are directed towards understanding technological processes, the use of tools and where these activities were performed at the sites.

Middle Neolithic sites in western Norway exhibit a varied used of raw materials for lithic tools, particularly with quartz and quartzite knapped using bipolar technique. The paper discusses a site from Øygarden, Hordaland County, western Norway, dated to the Middle Neolithic, with a use-wear analysis of the quartz assemblage as a point of departure. The focus is directed at understanding functional properties of the tool assemblage and the spatial context of technological practices reflected by the distribution of the artefact assemblage.

The use-wear analysis extends the understanding of the behavioural pattern of the site where two individuals performed both similar and different work operations. Quartz tools are associated with one of the individuals. The distribution of the tools suggests several spatially segregated work operations linked in a continuous process. The study directs attention to the lack of, and potential for, functional studies on Norwegian site assemblages.