Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences—Ground-edged sickles and knives in Neolithic North China were likely used for fiber production as well as harvesting, according to a study*. The transition from the Paleolithic Period to the Neolithic Period in North China was marked by the development of stone sickles and knives with continuous cutting edges produced by grinding and polishing. Such ground-edged tools are thought to have been used for harvesting cereal crops, but the origins of the technology are unclear. Ran Chen and colleagues analyzed 140 stone artifacts from the site of Peiligang in Henan Province, China, including Upper Paleolithic flaked stone tools and Early Neolithic flaked and ground-edged stone tools. Using experimental replicas, the authors found that, compared with stone flakes, ground-edged tools were only slightly more efficient at harvesting seed-bearing grasses but significantly more efficient at cutting thick-stemmed weeds and fiber-yielding plants. Use-wear and microfossil residue analysis indicated that Upper Paleolithic flaked tools were used to process diverse plant and animal materials, a feature also observed in Early Neolithic flaked tools. In contrast, ground-edged tools were more specialized for plant-related activities, including harvesting and processing food plants and fiber-producing plants. According to the authors, fiber production, an under-appreciated factor in the development of ground-edged stone tools in Neolithic China, provides insights into prehistoric tool use beyond subsistence functions.
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Hafted experimental sickle replica. Credit Ran Chen.
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Researcher using experimental sickle replica to harvest velvet leaf. Credit Ran Chen.
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Article Source: PNAS news release.
*“Plant fiber exploitation contributed to the emergence of ground-edged cutting tools in North China,” by Ran Chen, Yongqiang Li, Xingcan Chen, Wanfa Gu, and Xiaoying Wu. https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2608882123
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