Work

Estimating the scale of stone axe production: A case study from Onega Lake, Russian Karelia

Year: 2014

Type: article

Abstract: The industry of metatuff axes and adzes on the western coast of Onega Lake (Eneolithic period, ca. 3500 – 1500 cal. BC) allows assuming some sort of craft specialization. Excavations of a workshop site Fofanovo XIII, conducted in 2010-2011, provided an extremely large assemblage of artefacts (over 350000 finds from just 30 m2, mostly production debitage). An attempt to estimate the output of production within the excavated area is based on experimental data from a series of replication experiments. Mass-analysis with the aid of image recognition software was used to obtain raw data from flakes from excavations and experiments. Statistical evaluation assures that the experimental results can be used as a basement for calculations. According to the proposed estimation, some 500 – 1000 tools could have been produced here, and this can be qualified as an evidence of “mass-production”.

Source: Journal of Lithic Studies

DOI: 10.2218/jls.v1i1.757

Authors: Alexey Tarasov, Sergey Stafeev

Institution: Institute of Applied Mathematical Research of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Language: English

Topic: Archaeological and Geological Studies

Subfield: Archeology

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: diamond

OpenAlex ID: W2038891736

FWCI: 11.24

Cites: 22

Cited by: 10

Related to: 10