Quina Retouch Does Not Maintain Edge Angle Over Reduction

ABSTRACT

The Quina scraper features an important role in the discussion of European Middle Palaeolithic variability. Explanations for its characteristic retouch and blank morphology have ranged from economic to functional and cultural considerations. One hypothesis is that Quina retouch maintains the edge angle of the retouched margin, allowing the upkeep of high cutting potential despite repeated resharpening. In this study, we examine this hypothesis by using a sample of scrapers from the Middle Palaeolithic site of Roc de Marsal in southwest France. The results show that, when the influence of reduction intensity and flake thickness are controlled, Quina retouch has no detectable impact on the retouched edge angle. Instead, the overall higher edge angles among Quina scrapers are a product of continuous reduction and the use of thicker blanks. We discuss possible factors underlying the occurrence of Quina retouch with respect to lithic economy and function.

KEYWORDS:

• Quina
• Middle Palaeolithic
• scraper
• edge angle
• reduction

Acknowledgement

The data analyzed in this study were collected as part of the PhD research of SCL, which was financially supported by the University of Pennsylvania and the Kolb Society of the Penn Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. SCL would like to acknowledge and thank the late Harold Dibble for his suggestions and support during the data collection process. Some of the ideas presented here stem from discussions with Dennis Sandgathe. The authors thank Alain Turq, Shannon McPherron, Dennis Sandgathe and Paul Goldberg for permission to publish the scraper data from Roc de Marsal. Two anonymous reviewers provided valuable and detailed comments that greatly improved the quality and clarity of the paper.

Data availability statement

The data and R code required to reproduce the results and analytical figures in this paper are archieved as open access Supplement Material on Zenodo under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3984687).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Sam C. Lin (Ph.D. 2014, University of Pennsylvania, USA) is a Lecturer in the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences at the University of Wollongong, Australia. His research focuses on understanding the evolution of human technological behaviour through the study of stone artifacts. He is currently involved in field research projects in China and Indonesia.

João Marreiros (Ph.D. 2013, University of Algarve, Portugal) is a Junior Research Group Leader in the Laboratory for Traceology and Controlled Experiments (TraCEr) at MONREPOS, RGZM, Germany. He is also an associated researcher at the ICArEHB, Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behaviour, University of Algarve. His research focuses on the evolution of past human technologies, with special interest on the study of stone tool production and use. His research combines projects dedicated to experimental replication of stone tool use and the study of Middle and Upper Palaeolithic assemblages.