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What about Apatite? Possibilities and Limitations of Recognising Bone Mineral Residues on Stone Tools

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Abstract

Bone mineral residues derived from stone tool production and use can survive on lithic artefacts for extended periods of time. They thus form a line of evidence for reconstructing Palaeolithic human activities. Despite having been frequently reported on ancient stone tools, the identification of these residues is not without complications, and their diagenesis as well as their potential overlap with residues formed in the burial environment are only beginning to be addressed. We report here environmental and use-related calcium phosphate residues on previously washed and handled Gravettian stone tools from Hohle Fels (Germany) and Abri Pataud (France). The residues were characterised with optical microscopes and SEM–EDS. Our results provide an optimistic note on the preservation of bone mineral residues at sheltered Upper Palaeolithic sites, but also point to multiple and complex origins of apatite deposits on lithic tools. We discuss the characteristics of functional versus taphonomic residues and draw attention to the formation of authigenic hydroxylapatite and its implications for the identification of ancient bone mineral residues from tool use. We argue that this aspect has been largely overlooked by analysts until now. This calls for further refinement of analytical techniques, including continued research into sediment diagenesis and residue taphonomy, as well as the incorporation of production and use-wear evidence to ensure reliable residue interpretations.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Philippe Compère (University of Liège) for the ESEM analysis of the Hohle Fels residues and Hugues Plisson (University of Bordeaux, CNRS) for providing us with the microscopes that enabled the initial analysis of the Abri Pataud material at the site. We are grateful to Maria Malina and Andreas Taller (University of Tübingen) for their contributions to the fieldwork at Hohle Fels and to Elodie Herens (University of Liège), Susan Mentzer (University of Tübingen), Flora Schilt (University of Algarve) and Mareike Stahlschmidt (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology) for their advice concerning the analysis of archaeological apatite. We thank two anonymous reviewers for providing constructive and detailed feedback that helped us improve the manuscript.

Funding

This study was funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007–2013, ERC Grant Agreement No. 312283, EVO-HAFT, awarded to VR) and the Kone Foundation (Grant No. 088817, awarded to NT). NT’s research on Hohle Fels was additionally supported by a travel grant from the F.R.S.-FNRS (Grant No. 2014/V 3/5/274-IB/JN-7075).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. TraceoLab/Prehistory, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Noora Taipale, Dries Cnuts & Veerle Rots

  2. Département Homme et Environnement, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, UMR 7194 HNHP, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, Abri Pataud, France

    Laurent Chiotti

  3. Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Nicholas J. Conard

  4. Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Nicholas J. Conard

  5. Maître de Recherches du FNRS, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Veerle Rots

Authors
  1. Noora Taipale
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  2. Dries Cnuts
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  3. Laurent Chiotti
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  4. Nicholas J. Conard
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  5. Veerle Rots
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Contributions

Conceptualisation: NT, DC, VR. Methodology: NT, DC, VR. Formal analysis and investigation: NT, DC. Writing—original draft preparation: NT, DC, VR. Writing—review and editing: NT, DC, LC, NJC, VR. Funding acquisition: NT, VR. Resources: LC, NJC. Supervision: VR.

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Correspondence to Noora Taipale.

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Taipale, N., Cnuts, D., Chiotti, L. et al. What about Apatite? Possibilities and Limitations of Recognising Bone Mineral Residues on Stone Tools. J Paleo Arch 6, 21 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41982-022-00132-w

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