This major contribution to archaeological method details the use-wear analysis of a set of stone tools recovered during the excavation of Cassegros Cave, in southwestern France. The study combines low-power and high-power microwear approaches and develops their potential for use on a wider range of lithic and contact materials than have been reported previously.

Patrick C. Vaughan’s fieldwork on prehistoric stone tools and the analysis of their uses has carried him to France, Greece, West Germany, Italy, Japan, Peru, and Pakistan since 1978. He has published widely on the subject of lithic microwear in journals such as Le Recherche, the Journal of Field Archaeology, Revista del Museo Nacional (Lima), and Germania. The author, who received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania where he remains affiliated as a research fellow, has been engaged in use-wear research at the Laboratorium für Urgeschichte, Universität in Basel, Switzerland, since 1985.
 

"This important new methodologically-oriented work represents a major step forward in the expanding field of traceological studies. . . . The text is exceptionally well written and documented. Schematic artifacts line drawings . . . clearly indicate different use zones on edges and are preceded by a coded use-type key. The 280 x photomicrographs in section III are exceptional as is also the presentation of qualitative and quantitative data."—American Antiquity

"Vaughan's monograph provides a thorough treatment of the high-power microscopic approach to lithic use-wear analysis and will contribute to the resolution of this issue. . . . An excellent introduction to the subject."—North American Archaeologist