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Microfiber and starch residues, combined with use-wear evidence, indicate that ground-edged sickles and knives were used not only for plant foods but also for harvesting and processing fibrous plants. Experiments show that ground-edged tools were only slightly more efficient than flakes for cutting narrow-stemmed grasses but substantially more effective for fiber-yielding plants with tougher stems and thick-stemmed weeds. These findings indicate that ground-edged cutting tools emerged through broader functional demands, including fiber production, and potentially vegetation clearance, rather than cereal harvesting alone. 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