Morphometric Study of Traces on Bone Retouchers from the Chagyrskaya Cave Using a Profi lometer

Bone retouchers were used by ancient humans in stone tool working. They were made mainly of the bones of prey animals. Retouchers are most characteristic of the Neanderalian bone tool collections, but they are also found in other cultural and chronological contexts at all stages of the Stone Age in Eurasia and beyond. Research on bone retouchers has been carried out for over a century using many different methods. Use-wear signs on bone retouchers are usually studied through a microscope with a magnification of up to x50 and are classified according to morphological characteristics. Most often the size of retouchers and their working zones are measured, but not the size of a single sign. Today, there are several classifications of use-wear traces on bone retouchers identifying from two to four types of marks. This paper presents the results of a morphometric study of the most widespread and recognized by most researchers category of marks on retouchers -short linear impressions with a V-shaped or trapezoidal profile using high-precision three-dimensional modeling methods. A high-precision three-dimensional structured light scanner and a three-dimensional surface profilometer were used to analyze traces on the surface of retouchers at the micro level. We measured the length, width, depth and angles of single, non-overlapping traces on the working areas of retouchers from the Chagyrskaya Cave. As a result, the average size of such traces with various exhaustion rates and their inclination angle in the cross-section view were determined. The dimensions of the marks on retouchers of Chagyrskaya Cave were compared with those on retouchers from other Middle Paleolithic sites previously published by other researchers.