“Backing of Stone Tools – Experimental Archaeology”
by
Caleb Chen, New York University graduate student
Saturday, February 12 2022
2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. PST
Archaeologists record backed stone tools (tools that have been dulled along one edge by retouch or other intentional breakages) in worldwide assemblages. There are two main hypotheses to explain backing’s use to modify stone flakes and blades. The symbolic hypothesis predicts that “backing” served as a social signaling mechanism between cultural groups (Wurz 199). The functional hypothesis predicts that backing increases a stone tool’s adhesion strength in a hafting bond (Barham 2013). Caleb will discuss these two hypotheses and offer the results of his experimentation on hafting.

Caleb Chen graduated from University of California, Davis in 2020 with a Bachelor of Sciences in Anthropology, Summa Cum Laude. He is continuing his studies in Anthropology at New York University. He has experience from the Center of Experimental Archaeology at Davis in replication of self and sinew-backed prehistoric bows and tule canoes, and creating fishhooks from Channel Island single pieces. During the summer of 2021 Caleb studied backed stone tools at Kent State University. He created copies from South African archaeological blades from various materials that are backed and unbacked. He fired these manually and mechanically into clay targets until hafting bond failed and recorded the results.