Unmodified quartz flake fragments as cognitive tool categories : testing the wear preservation, previous low magnification use-wear results and criteria for tool blank selection in two Late Mesolithic quartz assemblages from Finland

We present the results of the first microwear analysis made on quartz artefacts excavated in Finland. Fifty-nine pieces from two Late Mesolithic sites were analyzed, including both morphological tools and unmodified flakes and flake fragments. Both assemblages have been previously analyzed using a stereomicroscope (Pesonen & Tallavaara 2006, Rankama & Kankaanpää 2011). Our results show that unmodified quartz fragments have been utilized as tools and therefore new tool categories can be found among the material previously treated as production waste. The results also indicate that the reliability of low magnification analysis depends greatly on the level of wear preservation, as well as on tool edge morphology, as obtuse-angled working edges could only be identified as used with high magnifications. Preliminary observations about possible tool blank selection criteria, such as the preference of intact flakes over flake fragments, should be tested with larger and more varied samples.