Business Type: Education. University Industry type: Research, Education
Activity: TraceoLab is a research centre in prehistory with a strong focus on functional studies of wear traces and residues on stone tools combined with systematic experimentation. Our research focuses mainly on the Palaeolithic period in the Old World. The study of hafting is one of the key research topics, next to projectiles and methodological developments.
Thanks to funding from the European Research Council, the University of Liège, and the Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), a fully equipped microscope lab could be developed in combination with a lab for residue extraction and processing and a lab for experimentation. TraceoLab also houses a large experimental reference collection for wear traces related to production, use and hafting, as well as a reference collection for residues, including residues on stone tools. The reference collection received the name TRAIL (Traces in Liège). It mainly consists of flint tools, but also includes stone tools made from other raw materials such as quartz, dolerite, hornfels, quartzite, obsidian and basalt. Projectiles form an important part of the collection.
TraceoLab has several unique characteristics in terms of its focus and the type of research performed. The lab employs a full-time prehistoric technologist, which allows for the systematic integration of experimental approaches in research programs.
Contact: TraceoLab . Location: Belgium