Multiple uses for Australian backed artefacts

Abstract

Backed artefacts, otherwise microliths or backed bladelets, are key indicators of cultural practice in early Australia - but what were they used for? The authors review a number of favourite ideas - hunting, scarification, wood working - and then apply use-wear analysis and residue studies to three prehistoric assemblages. These showed contact with a wide range of materials: wood, plants, bone, blood, skin and feathers. These results are unequivocal - the backed artefacts were hafted and employed as versatile tools with many functions.