SESSION 4 - Use-wear analyses - signs of usage on stone tools (a.k.a. traceology)
Use wear and hafting evidences on quartz tools from Vale de Pedra Forada site (Piaui, Brazil)

In this work we present the results of the use-wear analysis carried out on the lithic assemblage from the Vale da Pedra Furada site, dated to the Pleistocene period (27,000-14,000 BP). We describe the characteristics of the surfaces of the quartz tools that have been analyzed in order to reconstruct the production activities carried out with their edges. We focused our attention on the relation between the shape or type of the tools and the materials worked and the action performed with each one of them. Moreover, we identified several zones associated with the hafting; they seek abrupt fractures of 'siret' type or retouched notches, on which it is possible to observe micro-wear produced by the friction with the strings used for hafting. Such evidence has been reproduced experimentally, using the same raw material employed by the prehistoric group and reproducing the blanks showing the same technological features.