Forty-eight scrapers from Hawk’s Nest bore interpretable microwear traces. The extent and nature of the polish, located along a lateral edge, suggest that the piece was used to scrape or plane relatively fresh or green wood after being removed from the haft and retired from use in hide working. The wood polish was well formed, invasive, bright, and smooth and displayed multiple striations oriented in the direction of use. The other endscraper displayed a polish associated with contact/use on wood. These polishes usually manifest as relatively bright, smooth patches that display lo- calized or intermittent distribution (Keeley 1980). Unlike when working hide, which is relatively soft, when working harder materials like bone or antler, contact and micropolish formation is usually confined to microtopographic high points of the tool surface. One endscraper displayed evidence for contact with either bone or antler after first being used in grease hide working. Two endscrapers displayed evidence of use on other materials after being discarded as hide-working implements. These remnant areas containing well- developed grease hide polish were commonly observed as isolated patches along the distal margin, on undetached resharpening flakes, and in the corners, along the distal and lateral junctions. Clearer evidence for use on fresh or grease hide was identified on older, more worn edges or facets that had escaped resharpening (Figure 13.3). Freshly resharpened edges appeared irregular and displayed only a weak generic polish, little edge damage, and only light rounding, suggesting only a brief use prior to discard. The majority of scrapers used on fresh hide also displayed indications of resharpening attempts immediately prior to discard. In contrast, 31 of the scrapers displayed evidence of use on hide in an earlier stage of working in a “green” or “fresh” state, that is, “grease hide” Grease hide polishes are often slightly “greasy and bright” characteristics that indicate use on hide that still contained a fair amount of lubricant (Keeley 1980). Dry hide wear is characterized by heavy rounding and erosion of the working edge coupled with a relatively dull, pitted, matte- textured polish and striations generally oriented perpendicular to the working edge (Keeley 1980). Of the 48 scrapers examined, 15 had clear evidence of use on hide in a drier state of preparation (Figure 13.2).
Eight of the scrapers were too patinated, had been subjected to thermal damage, or had extensive plow damage and were not suitable for microwear analysis. Forty-eight of the 55 endscrapers examined had interpretable evidence of use-wear. Note that multiple contact uses are often recorded for a single implement as a result of reuse or recycling.
A summary of the microwear findings is presented in Table 13.1. While evidence for hafting/haft wear was observed on many of the archaeological implements, the present study was primarily focused on the examination of distal and lateral edges for evidence of use-wear. One hundred seventy of the endscrapers were suitable for analysis and bore identifiable evidence of use-wear. Generally, most of the pieces examined in the context of this analysis exhibited well-formed and preserved micropolishes along their distal working margins. sample), and 31 from Shawnee-Minisink (15 percent of the site endscraper assemblage, random sample).
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