Toward Recognizing the Prehistoric Butchery of Frozen Meat: An Archaeological Experiment and Stone Tool Microwear Analysis

ABSTRACT

Prehistoric humans occupied cold environments for more than one million years without the controlled use of fire. Processing frozen meat may have been a regular occurrence. In order to explore whether this behavior is present in the archaeological record, archaeologists must first understand whether the butchery of frozen meat leaves diagnostic traces of microwear on stone tools. We present an experiment that investigates what sorts of micro-traces are left on replica stone tools used for butchering frozen versus raw meat. Our results indicate that polish of similar brightness and texture forms on specimens used to slice both frozen and unfrozen meat, but that there are differences in the extent of polish formation away from the tool edge, damage frequency, and damage type. These experimental results can be used as a model to recognize frozen and unfrozen meat butchery on artifacts, which in turn has implications for interpreting archaeological sites.

KEYWORDS:

• Microwear
• frozen meat
• experimental archaeology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ms. Samantha Kirgesner earned her undergraduate degree in Anthropology from Kent State University.

Ms. Michelle R. Bebber is a Ph.D. candidate in Biological Anthropology at Kent State University.

Ms. Ashley Rutkoski is an M.A. candidate in Archaeology at Kent State University.

Dr. G. Logan Miller is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Illinois State University.

Dr. Metin I. Eren is Director of Archaeology and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Kent State University.

ORCID

Metin I. Eren http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3576-6076

Additional information

Funding

M.R.B. is financially supported by the Kent State University Biomedical Sciences (Biological Anthropology) Program. A.R. is supported by the Department of Anthropology, Kent State University. M.I.E. is supported by the Kent State University College of Arts and the National Science Foundation (NSF Award ID: 1649395).