Implementation of photogrammetry to the three-dimensional reconstruction of cut marks: an alternative to the Scanning Electron Microscopy

Resumen

During the last decades taphonomy has proven to be a discipline of great importance for the explanation of archaeological and palaeontology sites. Among the different taphonomic processes that can be associated to human actions, cut marks have been of great interest to explain human nutritional behaviour and it is a key tool in the explanation of hunting-scavenging debate. The presence, the frequency, the distribution, and the meaning of cut marks of bones have been thoroughly used to interpret Palaeolithic and archaeological sites. Thus, at this point, the right definition of these marks, the information obtained from them, as well as the identification of raw materials used in animal processing is crucial. Therefore, various researchers have experimented with different methods to better observe cut marks. The best method known to date is the one based on Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), by which during the last years researchers have been able to achieve spectacular results generating three-dimensional models of cut marks of bones. The main problem that these techniques pose is their high cost in money and time that is necessary to gather the necessary equipment, and to carry out the preparation that marks must experiment before being processed. In order to solve this problem and with the aim of increasing the volume of data susceptible to be analysed, in this work we outline the use of photogrammetry by macro lens to carry out these studies, we describe the previous process of investigation in detail, as well as the technique used, and we show the results that arise from their use. Statistical and morphometric studies were carried out on several hundreds of silhouettes of experimental cut marks made with different raw materials (flint, basalt, quartzite, and metal). This sample constitutes one of the biggest databases of this kind of data compiled up to the present day. Finally, we suggest new lines of investigation to which this procedure could be easily applicable.