Cut marks made with quartz tools: An experimental framework for understanding cut mark morphology, and its use at the Middle Palaeolithic site of the Navalmaíllo Rock Shelter (Pinilla del Valle, Madrid, Spain)

The study of cut marks in archaeological contexts is of great importance for understanding the subsistence strategies of past human groups. Many authors have indicated differences to exist between the cut marks produced by different tools and when the same types of tool have been made from different raw materials. The present work examines the cut marks made during the experimental butchering of a red deer (Cervus elaphus) using simple quartz flakes, with those found on fossilised animal remains at the Navalmaíllo Rock Shelter site (Pinilla del Valle, Madrid, Spain) likely to have been made with similar flakes. The methodology followed was that of Domínguez-Rodrigo et al. (2009), which was originally designed to differentiate between cut marks and trampling marks, but which here was tested as a method of distinguishing between the raw materials from which cutting tools were made. The results were also compared to those made with other types of tool/raw material reported in the literature. The present results confirm the above ideas: the marks made experimentally by the quartz flakes are very similar to those seen on the faunal remains from the level F of Navalmaíllo Rock Shelter site, but different to those made by other tools or by flakes made from other materials. They also show, however, that different cut mark morphologies are largely independent of the size of the animal butchered, and of the anatomical element on which they appear.This research was conducted as part of project S2010/BMD-2330 and funded by the I+D activities programme for research groups run by the Education Secretariat of the Madrid Regional Government. The study was also partly funded by the following organisations: Museo Arqueológico Regional de la Comunidad de Madrid, Grupo Mahou and Canal de Isabel II-Gestión. RH, JMV was supported by AGAUR (project no. SGR 2014-899) and by the URV (projects 2014, 2015 and 2016 PFR-URV-B2-17) under the auspices of the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya.Peer Reviewe