The contribution of stone tool residues in reconstructing Late Pleistocene hominin stone tool behaviour at Grotta di Fumane

Understanding the relationship between stone tool technology and Late Pleistocene hominins has been one of the most fundamental questions within the field of human evolution. While this question has traditionally been addressed through the technological and typological study of lithic remains, improvements in detecting and identifying stone tool residues offer new avenues for reconstructing Late Pleistocene stone tool technologies. However, the possible contribution of stone tool residues in the reconstruction of Late Pleistocene stone tool technologies remains unclear due to unsolved methodological issues. The remaining issues include uncertainties concerning the exact role of optical microscopy, the effect of the depositional context on residue preservation and the effect of (post-)excavation treatment. This paper explores the possible contribution of stone tool residues through a large-scale residue analysis of a lithic assemblage from Grotta di Fumane, including stone tools from Middle and Upper Palaeolithic layers. Including different microscopic techniques, lithics from different depositional contexts and treated through different (post-)excavation procedures allowed the verification of the effects of all these variables on the possible contribution of residues for reconstructing Late Pleistocene technologies. The results indicate that all these variables play a role in interpreting stone tool residues and should be considered crucial elements of a residue analysis protocol.