The Konso of Southern Ethiopia are one of the few groups in Ethiopia in which stone tool technology persists, in particular with regard to hide working. Stone scrapers are fabricated out of different raw materials like chert, quartz and quartz crystal. The scrapers are inserted into a concavity made in a straight wooden haft and fixed with the aid of resin. For the resin, an Acacia (sp.) tree gum is routinely used. It is ground up and then melted in the fire to make the mastic used to haft the tools. Charcoal generally forms an accidental addition to the resin during the heating process. While male hide workers are a dominant feature in southern Ethiopia, the Konso are unique in that women make and use the stone tools for hide working.
For more details, see:
ROTS, V. & B. WILLIAMSON. 2004. Microwear and Residue Analysis in Perspective: the contribution of ethnoarchaeological evidence, Journal of Archaeological Science 31: 12871299.