Material Culture Quiz 1: Raw Material and Flakes

Lithics

characteristic type of stone use as a cultural tool.

Oldowan

Oldest tool-making strategy (2.6 million years old)

Acheulean

tool making strategy; 1.76 million years ago

Lithic Analysis (components)

source of stone, when and where worked, technology used to make tools, use wear, debitage analysis, residue

Flintknapping

basic way to make flaked stone (how earliest tools were made)

Ground stone

Tools shaped by pecking and grinding, or polishing one stone with another.

Flaked and Ground stone

TWO MAIN CATEGORIES for lithics (products)

Knapping

• shaping of stone through lithic reduction

• Stones need to fracture in specific ways

• Structure = homogenous, elastic, brittle, rock forms conchoidal fractures

• Lithic core, antlers, bones

• REDUCTION

Characteristics of the best quality stone raw materials

• crystalline structure (fine-grained, cryptocrystalline structure → minerals not visible to the naked eye)

• fractures conchoidally: percussion force moves through the material evenly *CONE shape*

• Fractures with sharp edges

• homogenous minerality

Qualities of Lithic materials

• ease of flaking

• ability to hold an edge

• sharp edges

• aesthetic appearance

Basalt

Best material for chopping tools

Obsidian

Best material for very sharp knives

PIEDMONT STONE

• orange-brownish chert (peanut butter-looking)

Chert

hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz,

RIDGE AND VALLEY STONE

• predominantly black, gray, or blue-gray color (color from an increased amount of carbon)

• heat treatment: intensifies colors

COASTAL PLAIN STONE

• cream to tan/yellow-brown color (from the amount of iron)

• Dull sheen to the stone

• HEAT TREATED: becomes more red and shiny (heat treatment causes better flaking quality)

QUARTZ

DIABASE

• Fine, but visible texture

• gray in color

Cortex

Natural outer ring not suited for flintknapping

Hertzian Cone of Force

the shape of the conchoidal fractures in flintknapping (creates curved fracture lines/scars) (term for the fracture type)

Percussion and Pressure

Types of stone tool production

Indirect hammer

uses a bone, wood, or antler hammer that is struck with a stone, wood, or antler hammer so that the manufacture of flakes is more controlled (hafted)

Hammer and anvil

core as a hammer, and striking the edge of the core against a large, stationary rock to remove a flake; core and bottom stone touch, hit core against bottom rock

Bipolar Percussion

• used for rounded cobbles

• Modification of hammer and anvil technique

Core

• must have 3+ flakes removed from it

• mas from which flakes are removed

Conical Core

One flake was removed from a narrow end of the tool stone, and this was then used as the platform to take other flakes off. The end result is a cone-like shape.

Cylindrical Core

there is a platform on both ends of the toolstone, with flakes going up and down the side from either direction.

Biconical Core

several platforms with flakes taken alternately from either side, resulting in what looks like a pair of cones stuck together at the bases.

Bifacial Cores

flakes are taken off in such a way that the core itself grows thinner, without the edges shrinking much.

Flakes taken off both sides of a core (THIS)

Flake

A piece of lithic material broken off a larger piece

• can be used as a tool

• also can be trash from the creation process

Platform

Anatomy of a flake

• prepared surface on both the flake and the core where the blow that detached the flake was struck

Bulb of Percussion

conic section resulting from the fracturing of the rock

Compression Rings

concentric ridges that radiate (ripple) out from impact area, found on ventral surface

Flake Scars

concave surface left on a core after a flake has been removed from it (shows that a flake was removed from the surface)

Eraillure Scar

subsidiary flake scar on the bulb of percussion of a flake

Proximal end of a flake (proximal → platform)

the end with the striking platform (end that you hit)

Ventral side of a flake

Smooth side (interior) that faces towards the interior of the core *contains bulb of percussion*

Distal end of a flake

Opposite of the striking platform on a flake (away from point of percussion)

Dorsal side of a flake

Exterior side of a flake; faces toward the original rock; May have precious flake scars and is rough/contoured

Radial Fissures

Radiate AWAY from the bulb of percussion / striking platform

• not to be confused with compression rings (RIPPLE)

Retouch

flake by pressure to remove small, steep, flakes

• must be at least 3 in a row on a flake to be considered

not technique but result

Stages of flakes

• Primary- dorsal surfaces covered with cortex (cannot see the interior of the stone)

• Secondary- dorsal surface with some cortex (can be a lot of cortex or little cortex → but both parts are present)

• Tertiary- lacks cortex

Blade

• specialized type of percussion (trapezoidal in cross-section)

• Roughly parallel edges

• at least one ridge running the length of the dorsal surface

(finished product)

Uniface

flakes removed from one side of an edge (one - smooth; one = rough)

SCRAPERS

Biface

flakes removed on both sides (PPKs); often wavy look to edges

Shatter

blocky angular pieces of lithic break off unintentionally (flintknapping)

Debitage

Flakes + Shatter together