Functional determinations of stone tools gleaned through high-magnification usewear analysis enable archaeologists to reconstruct ancient household practices and identify diversity across regional domestic economies. A systematic obsidian usewear study with 300 specimens from the site of Altica, Mexico presented here reveals that tools from the Early–Middle Formative (1250–800 cal. b.c.) occupation were used for woodworking and subsistence-related activities. The high frequency of woodworking usewear patterns can be attributed to the construction and maintenance of the newly established settlement's households and agricultural plots. Combined with previous analyses of the site's paleoethnobotanical, osteological, and isotopic datasets, the usewear data further indicate a subsistence strategy that balanced foraging and non-intensive maize agriculture. Thanks to their proximity to the Otumba source and other sites exploiting it, Altica residents were able to employ a unifunctional tool-use approach with expedient percussion tools, which contrasts the multifunctional tool-use approaches documented at other Middle Formative sites.

通过高倍率使用磨损分析收集的石器功能测定使考古学家能够重建古代家庭实践并确定区域国内经济的多样性。对来自墨西哥阿尔蒂卡遗址的 300 个样本进行的系统性黑曜石使用磨损研究表明，这些工具来自早中期形成时期（公元前 1250 年至 800 年）) 职业用于木工和与生计相关的活动。木工用服模式的高频率可以归因于新建立的定居点的家庭和农田的建设和维护。结合之前对该地点的古民族植物学、骨学和同位素数据集的分析，使用磨损数据进一步表明了一种平衡觅食和非集约化玉米农业的生计策略。由于靠近 Otumba 源和其他利用它的地点，Altica 居民能够采用单功能工具使用方法和方便的敲击工具，这与其他中间形成地点记录的多功能工具使用方法形成鲜明对比。