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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 June 2018
Some of the use-modified stone artifacts obtained from Puebloan sites on Wetherill and Chapin mesas exhibit one technological attribute, edge-abrasion, which does not seem to have been reported previously from the Four Corners region nor from other sections of the United States. These artifacts are grouped under 38 styles, based on variations of edge-abrasion and other features resulting from use. They are assignable to each of the ceramic stages identified in the Mesa Verde district — Basketmaker III, Pueblo I, Pueblo II, and Pueblo III. Experiments suggest that edge-abrasion resulted from using the sharp-edged rock fragments to incise geometric designs on sandstone building elements and linear figures on fallen blocks of sandstone and, more commonly, to cut or saw “blanks” for artifacts and possibly many of the slabs and blocks (for architectural purposes) from larger pieces of the locally abundant, soft, fine-grained sandstone.
This is Contribution No. 28 of the Wetherill Mesa Archeological Project.