Quantifying lithic microwear with load variation on experimental basalt flakes using LSCM and area-scale fractal complexity (Asfc)

Working load is one factor that affects wear on stone tools. Despite the recognition of the importance of the relationship between working load and the development of microwear on stone tools, there have been few attempts to quantify differences in wear due to changes in load. In a controlled experiment, we used 30 basalt flakes knapped from raw material collected in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, Africa, to cut oak branches for the same number of strokes. For each flake, a different loading level was applied starting at 150 g and increasing by increments of 150 g to a maximum load of 4.5 kg. A laser scanning confocal microscope was used to mathematically document the surface texture of the flakes. The worn surface data were compared using area-scale fractal complexity (Asfc), calculated from relative areas, to determine the degree to which variation in loading significantly affected the amount of wear on the flake surfaces. Our results indicate that working load does play a role in the development of lithic microwear on these flakes and that discrimination of two worn flake surfaces, using mean square ratios of Asfc, based on variable load is consistently possible with load differences between ~100 g and 4.5 kg. However, discrimination of microwear on flake surfaces was not consistent for all load level differences and discrimination became less consistent when working load differences were below ~100 g.