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1 results

  • Multiple uses for Australian backed artefacts

  • Gail Robertson, Val Attenbrow, Peter Hiscock
  • Journal:
    Antiquity / Volume 83 / Issue 320 / June 2009
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    02 January 2015, pp. 296-308
    Print publication:
    June 2009

  • Backed artefacts, otherwise microliths or backed bladelets, are key indicators of cultural practice in early Australia – but what were they used for? The authors review a number of favourite ideas – hunting, scarification, wood working – and then apply use-wear analysis and residue studies to three prehistoric assemblages. These showed contact with a wide range of materials: wood, plants, bone, blood, skin and feathers. These results are unequivocal – the backed artefacts were hafted and employed as versatile tools with many functions.