The functional and social role of flint scrapers from the Vlaardingen site Wateringse Binnentuinen in The Hague.

In this thesis the flint assemblage of the Vlaardingen site Wateringse Binnentuinen is analysed with a special focus on scrapers. Compared to other Vlaardingen sites, a striking amount of scrapers was found at WBT. To see if this could have a functional reason the scrapers were divided in multiple typological groups and their use-life was researched. During the technological and use-wear analysis it became clear that the Vlaardingen people at this site were very opportunistic in the production of flint artefacts. However even though the number of scrapers is high at this site, the use-wear analysis shows that almost all scrapers were used for scraping hide. But not all the hide traces were the same; besides the presence of dry and fresh hide four different groups of hide traces were also recognised. Since it was not clear what could have caused the development of these hide wear traces, experiments were designed and conducted to see if the edge angle and the surface where scraping...Show moreIn this thesis the flint assemblage of the Vlaardingen site Wateringse Binnentuinen is analysed with a special focus on scrapers. Compared to other Vlaardingen sites, a striking amount of scrapers was found at WBT. To see if this could have a functional reason the scrapers were divided in multiple typological groups and their use-life was researched. During the technological and use-wear analysis it became clear that the Vlaardingen people at this site were very opportunistic in the production of flint artefacts. However even though the number of scrapers is high at this site, the use-wear analysis shows that almost all scrapers were used for scraping hide. But not all the hide traces were the same; besides the presence of dry and fresh hide four different groups of hide traces were also recognised. Since it was not clear what could have caused the development of these hide wear traces, experiments were designed and conducted to see if the edge angle and the surface where scraping was conducted could explain these differences. Unfortunately the wear traces on the experiments were not developed enough to provide an explanation. When combining the results of the use-life study with the permanent character of the settlement one can likely speak of a site with a very specialised tradeShow less

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The functional and social role of flint scrapers from the Vlaardingen site Wateringse Binnentuinen in The Hague.