Thanks to their favourable physical properties silicate rocks were used to produce tools, but like in any other industry during the production a lot of refuse emerges. In this regard it opens up questions about the chronology of the artefact, which alteration happened when, was the artefact still in use or already disposed et cetera. Those kinds of alterations tell us a lot about the “life history” of an artefact and how it was handled. People could have used heat to alter certain traits of chipped stones to ease the production of blanks from an otherwise unfavourable raw material or they disposed unwanted chipped stones and tools in a fire pit. While alterations through cold, wind and chemical processes are often caused by natural developments, alterations through heat are typically connected to human activities, either direct or indirect. The origin and occurrence of different patination is a complex matter. Physical and chemical processes on the other hand may result in a patination of the artefact which often changes the surface colour and sometimes roughness of the artefact. Thermic alterations are often visible through frost fractures, “pot lid” fractures, crazing and even change of colour of the raw material, just to name a few (Inizan et al. Such can occur through heat, cold and wind as well as through physical and chemical processes connected to the soil an artefact was buried in. 1: Workplace inside the excavation house with all the necessary tools like a calliper, a scale, a magnifier and a measuring box built from Lego bricks and grid paper (Photo by Thore Hübert, DAI, 2022)įurthermore, alterations of the artefacts are recorded. Combined with the metric values this can for example help to interpret the nature of the researched lithic assemblage, does it consist of disposal and waste materials or is it a cache where blanks or tools were stored. Is it complete? If not, what kind of fractures does it show? and so on. While measuring the artefact its condition needs to be considered as well. To record weight, length, width and thickness a calliper, a scale and a measuring box are needed (as seen in Fig. Afterwards the metric values of every single piece are taken. First and maybe most important is to give every artefact an individual number, so it will always be recognizable. Next, we shall give an insight into the process of recording artefacts. From the results of those in detail researched artefact assemblages we determine historical existing patterns which apply to the whole site. A difficulty is that recording all the features of an artefact takes a huge amount of time and since the number of artefacts at Göbekli Tepe is enormous it is only possible to research small areas in detail. Some of those are descriptive others are metric. ![]() Therefore, we record mainly macroscopic visible features on the researched lithics. At Göbekli Tepe our most recent work focuses on typological and technological developments. In both cases it is necessary to record microscopic features of the chipped stones. Some researchers who work on chipped stones are experts on use-and wear-traces, others are experts in determining raw materials and their origin (e.g. ![]() Yet, the methods may vary immensely depending on the questions someone researches. Already are existing many different systems and methods to reveal as many information as possible from a single silicate rock. Before reading this blog entry we recommend to read the last article on chipped stones from the 5 th of July by Jonas Breuers “Chipped Stones: What they are and how they can help understand Göbekli Tepe”Īrchaeologists who involve themselves in the work of analysing lithics (synonymous with chipped stones) will early on experience a variety of different possibilities to do so.
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