Usewear on the platform: 'Use-flakes' and 'Retouch-flakes' from Northern Australia and Timor

Small flakes from stone tools are often detached during use (‘use-flakes’) and edge modification (‘retouch-flakes’). Sometimes traces of use are preserved and indicate use along the external platform edge prior to detachment. Unlike complete tools, which may have been curated and used elsewhere, use-flakes and retouch-flakes potentially provide stronger evidence that the activities identified by use-wear traces on the lithic artefacts took place at the site where the flakes were recovered. This preliminary study examines the nature of hammer wear, usewear and residues on stone tools, ‘retouch-flakes’ and ‘use-flakes’ from sites in northern Australia and Timor.