An experimental assessment of the influences on edge damage to lithic artifacts: a consideration of edge angle, substrate grain size, raw material properties, and exposed face

Functional analyses of stone tool assemblages face a number of methodological challenges. Aside from determining specific uses, it can be difficult to know which artifacts in an assemblage were used at all. Typically retouch is taken as a proxy for indicating past use, but ignoring unretouched flakes means excluding the overwhelming majority of most assemblages. Assessing whether an unretouched flake has been used is complicated. Edge damage on...