Use-Wear Analysis of Flaked Stone Tools

This major contribution to archaeological method details the use-wear analysis of a set of stone tools recovered during the excavation of Cassegros Cave, in southwestern France. The study combines low-power and high-power microwear approaches and develops their potential for use on a wider range of lithic and contact materials than have been reported previously.

Patrick C. Vaughan’s fieldwork on prehistoric stone tools and the analysis of their uses has carried him to France, Greece, West Germany, Italy, Japan, Peru, and Pakistan since 1978. He has published widely on the subject of lithic microwear in journals such as Le Recherche, the Journal of Field Archaeology, Revista del Museo Nacional (Lima), and Germania. The author, who received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania where he remains affiliated as a research fellow, has been engaged in use-wear research at the Laboratorium für Urgeschichte, Universität in Basel, Switzerland, since 1985.