Technological Choices of Coastal populations : a functional perspective through the use-wear study of knapped lithic tools during the Late Mesolithic (6300-4500 cal BC) in south Norway.

TeCh-Coast aims to understand how past populations have used tools and what technological choices they have made to deal with the coastal environment.

On the southern Norway seashore, the Late Mesolithic (6300-4500 cal BC) sites constitute a unique knowledge repository of coastal hunter-gatherer populations, in which stone-knapped tools are the most frequent artifacts. However, very little is known about the use of these to exploit coastal resources.

How and for what were these tools used? How does their use reflect socially transmitted technological knowledge to exploit coastal resources?

Through an innovative and interdisciplinary techno-functional approach, TeCh-Coast aims to bring new functional data on the use of lithic tools to further understand the technological choices of coastal populations.

Analyses of the plastic deformations on the surface of the tools due to their use (i.e. use-wears) will be performed on three preselected lithic assemblages.

In addition, an experimental analytical program will be set to identify quantifiable wear attributes in lithic tools resulting from the exploitation of marine animal resources by means of confocal scanning microscopy.

Finally, by combining observations with a dynamic technological approach and landscape archaeology, the project will aim to identify the technological choices of the coastal groups.

More widely, the present project will provide a broader perspective on the Atlantic European seashore, allowing cross-regional comparisons with other coastal groups.

The TeCh-Coast project results will have an important impact on the research of the coastal Stone Age hunter-gatherer populations, as well as bring new methodological perspectives to use-wear studies. The results will be disseminated by open-access publications and outreach activities.

Through a prehistoric perspective, the project aims to engage in the social debate about the role of technology in the exploitation of environmental resources in the present.