Abstract
Bukit Bunuh has been identified as a crater result from the impact of meteorite. The impacted area has a variation type of rocks. However, through excavations, it was found that there are three types of rocks in the area which have been used for producing stone tools, for instance, suevite stone (impact rocks), quartzite and metasediment rock such as cherty. The significant difference between the three types of stones is their texture. Suevite rocks have a heterogeneous texture, while quartzite and cherty have homogenous and fine grains. However, quartzite rocks differ from cherty rocks in terms of the grain size where quartzite stones are coarser compared to cherty rocks. Normally, a homogenous material and fine rocks are suitable to be used as a tool. Since suevite rock is also used in this experiment, therefore, the analysis is done to investigate the differences and compatibility of the textures for these two types of rocks, heterogeneous and homogenous. The study also aims to determine the effect of attributes on the different materials. For this purpose, usewear experimental was used. Observation was done on the attributes results from the experiments which are roundness, fraction, polish distribution, type of polish distribution and linear feature. The result shows that suevite rock suitable to be used as stone tools because its edge is wear-resistant and harder but difficult to obtain sharp edges. For cherty rocks, it is easy to flake and wear but it has sharper edge compared to suevite rock. This means that the impacted rocks are suitable to be used as stone tools but will produce different usewear attributes according to the rock’s texture.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to express our gratitude to the Vice-Chancellor Prof. Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail and former Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dato’ Dr. Omar Osman, who has lent support to this archaeological project. This research also would not be possible without funding from Project Litik Technology in Palaeolithic at Malaysia Grants (1001/PARKEO/870013), Archaeological Research Malaysia and Global Grants (1001/PARKEO/270015), Sabah North Archaeological Research: Exploration of early human evidence Projects Grant (203/PARKEO/6730139) and Project Evidence Of Migration Routes During Palaeolithic Era In Eastern Sabah, Sabah (1001/PARKEO/8016020). Our thanks to the staff of Centre for Global Archaeological Research, USM, for their patience in providing guidance and assistance to our friends as well as everyone who was involved directly and indirectly throughout the execution of this study.
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Abd Jalil, S.K., Abdullah, J., Saidin, M. (2018). Usewear Experiment to Determine Suitability of Rock Material from the Crater of Meteorite Impacts as a Prehistoric Stone Tool. In: Saian, R., Abbas, M. (eds) Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the Future of ASEAN (ICoFA) 2017 – Volume 2. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8471-3_47
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