The pressure knapping technique develops circa 25,000 cal BP in Northeast Asia and excels at producing highly standardized microblades. Microblade pressure knapping spreads throughout most of Northeast Asia up to the Russian Arctic, and Alaska, in areas where the human presence was unknown. Swan Point CZ4b is the earliest uncontested evidence of human occupation of Alaska, at around 14,000 cal BP. It yields a pressure microblade component produced with the Yubetsu method, which is widespread in Northeast Asia during the Late Glacial period. Through the techno-functional analysis of 634 lithic pieces from this site, this study seeks to identify the techno-economical purposes for which the Yubetsu method was implemented. Data show that the microblade production system is related to an economy based on the planning of future needs, which is visible through blanks standardization, their overproduction, their functional versatility, and the segmentation of part of the chaîne opératoire. This expresses the efficiency and economic value of the microblade production system. The flexible use of pressure microblades identified at Swan Point CZ4b is also found in Japan, Korea, Kamchatka, and the North Baikal region, suggesting that their modes of use accompany the spread of early microblade pressure knapping over an immense territory across Beringia.

Music likely played an important role within prehistoric societies but can be challenging to study in the absence of evidence for musical instruments. Here, the authors present two deer antlers recovered from the early Metal Age site of Go O Chua in southern Vietnam. A detailed examination of the artefacts, including evidence for use-wear, combined with insights from ethnographic analogies, leads the authors to conclude that the artefacts were single-stringed musical instruments. At least 2000 years old, the Go O Chua artefacts would be the earliest-known examples of chordophones from the region and indicate a long musical tradition. Their identification gives impetus to archaeo-musicological research in Southeast Asia and beyond.

En la subcuenca de Magdalena en el estado de Jalisco, los pueblos asentados en las inmediaciones del lago aprovecharon los recursos disponibles para la producción artesanal de bienes útiles y suntuarios. La presencia del Volcán de Tequila, el Lago de Magdalena y el sistema Lerma-Chapala-Santiago, facilitaron el acceso a recursos y la movilidad de productos para su distribución. En el centro del cuerpo acuífero fósil se eleva Atitlán, isla que resguarda evidencia de actividades de producción que se relacionaron con el aprovechamiento de recursos minerales y acuáticos por lo menos a partir del año 450 dC y hasta el 1500 dC. Dentro de las evidencias estudiadas sistemáticamente a nivel de superficie, es de nuestro interés una acumulación de objetos de obsidiana que se extiende en un área de 56.400 m2. El análisis espacial de distribución, junto con los de morfología, desgaste y microscopía aplicada a la identificación de huellas de uso, nos permiten explicar que se trató de un espacio de producción especializado de instrumentos de obsidiana mediante la técnica de talla, los cuales fueron empleados para el aprovechamiento de recursos perecederos.

North Macedonia is a crucial region for understanding the spread of agriculture into the Mediterranean and Central Europe. To date, however, the area has been subject to relatively limited archaeological research. Here, the authors present use-wear and archaeobotanical analyses on material from two Neolithic sites, Govrelevo and Vrbjanska Čuka, to investigate practices that were previously unstudied in this part of the Balkans, such as sowing, cultivation and harvesting techniques. The results suggest the presence of permanent crop fields located in wetlands, with autumn and spring sowing, and harvesting using curved sickles. The study illuminates early agricultural practices in North Macedonia and adds to our knowledge of the spread of the Neolithic package across Europe.

The perforated stone battle-axes and axe-hammers of Early Bronze Age Britain have been used either to interpret the status of individuals they were buried with or have been overlooked; this is especially the case with axe-hammers. Previous understandings have assumed battle-axes were purely ceremonial, while the rougher axe-hammers were neither functional nor prestigious, being too large and too crude to be prestige items. Studies of the 20th century were focused on creating a typology and understanding the manufacture and petrological sources of the stone, concluding that haphazard exploitation of stone was used to create a variety of different shapes of both implements. This paper revisits the question of how these artefacts were used. It presents the results of the first large-scale application of use-wear analysis to British Early Bronze Age battle-axes and axe-hammers, from northern Britain and the Isle of Man. Combining the results of the wear analysis with experimental archaeology and contextual analysis, it is argued that these objects were functional tools, some of which saw prolonged use that might have spanned multiple users. The evidence shows that the few implements found in burial contexts were both functional and symbolic; their inclusion in burial contexts drawing upon relational links which developed through the itineraries of these objects. It is also apparent that use and treatment were similar across all types of battle-axe and axe-hammer, with some regional variation in the deposition of axe-hammers in south-west Scotland. It is concluded that battle-axes and axe-hammers had varied and multiple roles and significances and that it is possible to discover what each artefact was used for by deploying a use-wear analysis methodology.

This article presents a comparative study of the arrowheads found in graves dating to between 2500 BC and 1700 bc in north-west France, southern Britain and Denmark. The aim is to characterise their modes of production and functions during a period which successively sees the introduction of copper then bronze metallurgy, the former accompanying the appearance of Bell Beaker pottery and associated practices in these areas. Several modes of production are proposed, from individual manufacture by Bell Beaker-using warriors to specialist production for elite use during the Early Bronze Age. Over and above their function as weapons – arguably associated more with interpersonal combat than with hunting – arrowheads served to portray and emphasise the social status of the individuals. In the case of the Early Bronze Age Armorican arrowheads, they should be regarded as ‘sacred’ objects, made for display and enhancing the power of the chiefs. Lastly, arrows are placed in the broader perspective of major trends affecting Europe during the Bell Beaker period and then the Early Bronze Age, while the distribution of arrowheads with slanted barbs suggests the operation of an Atlantic cultural complex.

The pre-Contact foraging communities of the north-west coast of North America have long been recognised as exhibiting many of the features we associate with agricultural societies, including sedentism and social inequality. Evidence from the pre-Contact plank house communities of Meier and Cathlapotle throws new light on the spatial organisation of these societies. Detailed analysis of stone tools allows the spatial division of labour to be determined within these large, multi-family households. This reveals that while some tasks were associated with particular social ranks, a hierarchical community can be identified in each plank house. Overall, the differences lie in the degree of engagement rather than the kind of activity, helping to characterise labour organisation among these unique, sedentary foragers. The results also provide insight into the potential of stone tool analysis for social reconstruction.

The widespread employment and acceptance of use-wear analysis on materials such as flint and bone has not been accompanied by a parallel development in archaeometallurgy. This article explores its potential and problems through the investigation of socketed axes in eastern Yorkshire, in England and south-east Scotland during the late Bronze Age. Experimental work on modern replications of socketed axes was compared with wear traces on prehistoric socketed axes. The results indicate that prehistoric socketed axes had been used as multi-purpose tools, but that the nature and extent of their uses before deposition varied considerably. By combining use-wear analysis with contextual information on socketed axes in the late Bronze Age landscape, ideas concerning their significance can be explored.