A Review Of Researches On Endscrapers And Related Issues

Endscraper is one kind of the classic flake tools in Stone Age, with consistent retouch location on the dorsal surface at the distal end and widespread occurence around the world. This paper reviews previous researches on endscrapers and related issues, consisting of five chapters:Chapter 1 shows the the reason why I choose this topic, as well as the reseach purposes and perspective of this paper.Chapter 2 reveals the distribution and form of endscrapers.Chapter 3 discusses the worked materials and motional direction.Chapter 4 introduces the resharpening techniques and reduction measuring. The relationship between endscraper reduction intensity, lithic material procurement and human mobility will be discribed later through some cases.Chapter 5 is the conclution:1.Endscrapers are thought to be a kind of typical tools according to archaeological discoveries in Eurasia, North Africa and North America from Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene. Nowadays, some hideworkers in these regions still use stone endscrapers.2.The various blank, utility and hafting result in the diversity of endscrapers.Except the fluted endscrapers, spurred endscrapers in Paleoindian period and side-notched endscrapers in Archaic period which have obvious features, we can’t classify an endscraper as the typical tool in a certain period or region by its shape and blank.3.Years of microwear analysis shows that endscrapers were designed for working hide, prominently the fresh hide in early process,sometimes the dry hide in late process, in accordance with the ethnographic observation. Meanwhile, endscrapers may be used for working hard materials occasionally.4.Some scholars claim that endscrapers found in Russia and Europe were used hand-held,with the pulling motion. Other studies show that endscrapers in Hokkaido usually were pushed away from the workers. Wear traces of hafting are also found on some tools.5.There are two resharpening techniques: one is rejuvenating the former working edge completely by a blow, and a new working edge is prepared by removing small chips. The second is removing small chipped flakes along the working end directly. The latter one is more convenient and found commonly in archaeological sites. The reduction could be measured by different methods, including lengh/width, lengh/thickness, area/thickness, plat area/mass, 3DERP.6.The reduction intensity could reflect human mobility strategies, however, the relationship between them may be more complex than we know taking the consideration of the paleoenvironment, frequency and distance of mobility, abundance of lithic materials.