Stone tool use as an adaptive technology: A meta-analysis of functional estimates on use-wear traces from early, middle, and late Upper Paleolithic industries in the northeastern Japanese Archipelago

Abstract

Since the 1980s, the development of experimental traceological studies has enabled archaeologists to estimate the intended use of Paleolithic stone tools whose functions were unclear. Despite the functional analyses of over 5500 Japanese Upper Paleolithic artifacts, how stone tool use was organized in response to the Late Pleistocene environmental changes remains poorly understood. Using an updated database of Japanese Upper Paleolithic functional studies, this paper conducts a meta-analysis of functional estimates from use-wear traces to examine the differences in stone tool use among three lithic industries in the northeastern Paleo-Honshu Island: Trapezoid (early Upper Paleolithic: EUP, c. 38–32 cal ka BP), Blade point (middle Upper Paleolithic: MUP, c. 32–23 cal ka BP), and Microblade (late Upper Paleolithic: LUP, c. 18–16 cal ka BP) and to discuss how Paleolithic hunter-gatherers organized and adapted their tool use strategies during Marine Isotope Stages 3 and 2. Results suggest that EUP, MUP, and LUP populations organized their stone tool uses differently. The EUP foragers used trapezoidal tools multifunctionally, though infrequently for shaping non-lithic and/or complex tools. In contrast, LUP foragers honed technologies to maintain diverse stone toolkits specialized for processing non-lithic and complex tools. MUP foragers possessed blade tools with a moderate frequency of toolmaking traces and moderate multifunctionality. Taken together, observed diversity of stone tool use likely reflect differences in the toolkit structures that Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers designed to adapt to the Late Pleistocene environments on the northeastern Paleo-Honshu Island.