An experimental investigation of the effects of post-depositional damage on current quantitative use-wear methods

This paper describes a new method of estimating stone tool function using a laser-scanning confocal microscope. The primary benefit of the quantitative approach used here, and others like it, is that it increases reproducibility while reducing subjectivity and inter/intra-observer error. Although the use of laser-scanning confocal microscopy in functional analyses is not novel, the method presented here was “stress tested” using an experimental assemblage to explore the impact of post-depositional damage on its results. The findings reveal that this method is still viable with lightly and moderately damaged specimens. It is therefore likely that methods like this one are no more vulnerable to post-depositional damage than conventional use-wear methods and can confidently be applied to archaeological specimens.