Knowing the Drill: Investigating Mesolithic Perforation Technologies Through Experiment, Traceology, and Photogrammetry

Perforations observed in artefacts, such as heavy tools, made from red deer antler indicate that Mesolithic people possessed various means for making holes in osseous materials. Nevertheless, prehistoric perforation technologies are relatively poorly understood. This study argues that a lack of systematic experimental-traceological work, compounded by the inadequacy of traditional modes of traceological data presentation, has deprived the literature of a robust empirical basis on which to interpret archaeological perforations. To help address this perceived gap in the literature, a series of experiments was undertaken in which different techniques were used to drill holes in red deer antler. The experimental material was then subjected to traceological analysis and photogrammetric modelling. Technologically diagnostic traces were identified by which two flint-based perforation techniques - hand boring and bow drilling - can be distinguished from one another. Relationships between the form of a flint tool and the morphology of the hole that it produces were also identified. Photogrammetry was evaluated as a method for the analysis and the presentation of osseous technological traces, and was found to have significant potential in this application.