Folia archeologica 47.
Csongrádiné Balogh Éva: Tipológiai és traszeológiai vizsgálatok rézkori és bronzkori pattintott kőeszközökön
38 CSONGRÁDINÉ BALOGH ÉVA unretouched blades, part of them was used to cut dry hide. It seems that most of them was not used because use wear is not visible on them either to the naked eye or under a high magnification microscope. The majority of these tools was most probably prestige object buried together with the dead. It is still unknow whether these objects were prepared definitely for the funeral or they were everyday tools of males used only for a short time? In the latter case it could be quite normal the absence of use wear on these tools. 4 8 According to my opinion the solution of this problem requires much more microwear analyses to be made on intact assemblages originating from cemeteries. Within the studied material consisting of relatively few tools the use of retouched blades was the most diversified, that is they were used to cut dry hide and plant parts and for butchery work. The most frequently occurring activity was the cutting of dry hide. To scrape dry hide definitely scrapers were used, though tools shaped to be scrapers were used also to cut plant parts. Use wear referring to the traditional function of some other tools (burins, borers) was not found. The majority of burins of different kind, represented in the studied material as the second largest group of tools after retouched and unretouched blades, was used to cut dry hide. This observation does not coincide with our traditional notion on the primary function of burins. At this point again emerges the question of primary, secondary and chronologically multiple use of tools. To determine these functional phases also microwear studies are required. These analyses would be useful also to help to explain the meaning of aesthetic quality and of functionalism as regards chipped stone tools. 2. The analysis of Bronze Age material Brian Adams had analyzed altogether 34 Bronze Age chipped stone tools which derive from two sites (Figs. 4-6) On most of them he found microwear referring to cutting of plant parts (Figs. 10. 1, 3, 7, 10). These pieces typologically are mostly saws or bifacial flakes with a serrated edge. Other typed (burin, scraper, fragment of backed blade, retouched flake, unretouched blaae) are represented only by one piece each, which means that is the Bronze Age besides the characteristic saws and serrated bifacial flakes occasionally also other types of any kind were used for cutting plant parts (Fig. 10. 5, 7, 10). At the same time it is surprising that there were no traces of use on the do per cent of the chipped stone tools studied. Typologically these pieces belong to the same groups as the ones with microwear, tnat is they are saws, serrated bifacial flakes, scraper - saw combined tool, hafted point, unretouched flake, retouched blade, bifacial scraper (Fig. 10. 2, 4, 6). Since in this case no regularities of that kind which ca be observed in the case of Copper Age unretouched blades are present it is highly probable that just by chance those chipped stone tools were analyzed which were used either for a very short time or were not used at all. Only after a series of analyses made on much more chipped stone tools would prove the truth of this hypothesis and in that case the chance of error would be considerably less because at present the analyzed 34 pieces is too small quantity to be the basis of statistic evaluations. A bit more simple is to judge that group in which the tools bear traces of damage caused by impact (Fig. 10. 8, 9). Only arrowheads belong to this group. They are bifacially manufactured arrowheads made of different kinds of flints. In the case of these tools the only problem is the characteristic of the damage. According to Brian Adams' observations - and also to the literature - impact creates on the distal ends of chipped stone tools such characteristic damage as used 4 8 Bácskay 1995. manuscript
