Mountains® software is the trusted platform for surface and texture analysis across industry and research. Archaeologists worldwide now apply it to trace analysis, microwear studies and multi-scale examination of ancient artifacts, including bones, tools and teeth thus delivering new insights into prehistoric behavior, diet and object use.
Examples of archeologists using Mountains® surface analysis software
✅ Researchers studying use-wear traces on stone tools
✅ Paleoanthropologists examining dental microwear
✅ Curators and conservators documenting surface degradation
✅ Students and educators in archaeological science
Key features for archaeologists
- 3D surface texture analysis based on ISO 25178 parameters: apply filtering to remove form and waviness and characterize surface roughness with parameters from ISO 25178.
- Trace & wear analysis: identify micro-damage, polish and usage patterns on surfaces, including lithic surfaces.
- Multi-scale analysis (also called scale-sensitive analysis): methods for analyzing geometric properties of surfaces and their scale derivatives (formerly in Sfrax software). Read more.
Above. Scale-sensitive fractal analysis carried out on the tooth surface of an African antelope in a study on tyrannosaurus teeth. See full study.
- Dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA): perform detailed quantitative studies on teeth with dedicated tools formerly included in Toothfrax software.
- Surface geometry analysis: study the shape and edge geometry of objects, for example of engraving tools to infer manufacturing techniques and usage.
Above. Contour analysis study of engraving tool geometry on a bone surface.
- Taphonomy: quantify surface alterations caused by post-depositional processes.
- Morphometric analysis: extract surface metrics to support geometric morphometric studies of tools and bone artifacts.
- Easy visualization & reporting: Mountains® intuitive desktop-publishing style interface is easy to use – even for newcomers – and helps you generate high-quality 3D views of your surfaces as well as statistics and reports for publications or to share with colleagues.
- Automated data processing: batch-process large datasets in particular for multivariate statistical analysis (e.g. PCA, cluster analysis) of archaeological surfaces.
Featured case studies
- Revealing ancient tool function with surface analysis
- Mountains® used in study on the world’s oldest drawing
- Using microwear analysis to understand what T-rex ate (includes video)
- Roughness measurements on Neolithic stelae
What customers are saying
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