[Short Glossary of Lithics Terms]
3 Manufacturing Methods, used separately or in combination, are used to produce stone
artifacts:
- Flaking (Percussion Flaking, Knapping)
- Pecking
- Grinding
Stone tool-making is a reductive process. Once a flake is taken off, it can't be put back, so:
- the knapper (stone worker) had to think before acting; and
- the archaeological record often contains abundant evidence of the stone tool technologies and manufacturing processes used in the cultures being studied.
Flaking, or Percussion Flaking, or Knapping
This involves using a hammer to strike flakes, in a controlled manner, from a core until the desired shape is obtained.
Materials used to make flaked stone tools must be "solids having the properties of a heavy liquid":
- Elasticity (able to bend slightly)
- Homogeneity (the same throughout)
- Isotropic (no cleavage planes--able to fracture in any direction)
- Highly Siliceous (glass-like)
Examples of such materials include, but are not limited to:
- Flint
- Fine-grained Basalt
- Chert
- Chalcedony
- Jasper
- Volcanic Glasses, including Obsidian
Knapping requires:
- Knowledge of How to do the task
- A Strategy or Plan
- Mechanical Skill to carry out the task
The Worker is always dealing with:
- Platform (preparation is very important)
- Amount of Force
- Angle (90 degrees or less)
- Topography of the stone--use of ridges, etc.
The work becomes subconscious through experience and practice.
Direct Freehand Percussion is commonly used for Reduction, Thinning, and Basic Shaping (Core and Core Tools, Choppers, Scrapers, Bifaces)
General Reduction Sequence:
- (Get into Rock)
- Cortex Removal
- General Shaping
- Thinning
- Finishing
Evidence of flaking found in archaeological sites:
- Diagnostic Flakes, which
have the following characteristics:
- Platform or Striking Platform
- Ventral (Inside) Surface has:
- Lip
- Eraillure Flake Scar
- Bulb of Force (or Bulb of Percussion)
- Fissures (or Hackles)
- Dorsal (Outside) Surface
- Cortex (sometimes)
- Preparation Flake Scars
- Flake Scars
- Ridges
- Cores--Chunks of rock with flake scars that are sometimes patterned, and sometimes not patterned.
- Rejected Blanks, Preforms, Bifaces, etc.
- Non-Diagnostic Debris
- Angular Chunks
- Flakes Lacking Diagnostic Characteristics
- Unworked Raw Material (sometimes)
- Hammerstones (sometimes)
Pressure Flaking
Pressure flaking is a means of removing small flakes by slow, steady force (pressing them off) using a hard, pointed tool (often a sharpened deer antler tine). This technique is usually used to do final thinning and shaping of bifaces used for projectile points, and for retouch (repairing/sharpening). The patterning of the flaking can be either random or patterned.
A variation of the pressure technique is used for notching points.
Pecking
Pecking involves the removal of material from courser-grained rocks by impact (crushing). This is a method used with materials that cannot be reliably flaked in a controlled manner, or to create concave or convex surfaces that cannot be achieved by flaking. Examples from Hawaii include poi pounders, 'ulumaika, sinkers, and stone bowls.
Pecking is often followed by grinding and/or polishing.
Grinding/Polishing
Grinding is a method of shaping or finishing by abrasion--rubbing an object on a hard, abrasive surface (a grindstone), often using sand or other additional abrasive, and water.
Polishing is accomplished by using a very fine-grained stone (a whetstone, or polishing stone) to put a very sharp edge on a cutting tool or to put a high polish on some object's surface.
Some Readings:
Crabtree, Don E., 1982. An Introduction to Flintworking. Second Edition. Idho Museum of Natural History, Pocatello.
Whittaker, John C., 1994. Flintknapping: Making & Understanding Stone Tools. University of Texas Press, Austin.
Last
Revised 12/02/98
by Jo Lynn Gunness