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Residues on stone artefacts: state of a scientific art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Richard Fullagar ,
Judith Furby  and
Bruce Hardy
Richard Fullagar
Affiliation:
Division of Anthropology, Australian Museum, 6 College Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
Judith Furby
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Bruce Hardy
Affiliation:
Institute for Molecular & Cellular Biology, Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington IN 47405, USA
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Extract

It is a startling experience to look down a microscope at a stone tool — a real Palaeolithic artefact, not a modern thing or a replicated copy — and see on its flint surface grubby brown-red stains that look the colour of old blood. Is a consensus emerging from the archaeological scientists as to just what traces of, especially, biological materials do survive on ancient stone surfaces, where they can be reliably characterized and identified?

Type
Reports
Information
Antiquity , Volume 70 , Issue 270 , December 1996 , pp. 740 - 745
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1996

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