For the last two or three years he's been experimenting with an interesting flintknapping method of flake reduction. He calls this process the rocker-punch technique after Bob Patten's rocker-punch fluting technique. This procedure is impressive to watch and in fact it might have even been used by Clovis people to make some of the very large biface cores like those found on the Anzick site.
Mike says that rocker-punching offers a lot more force with far less expended energy by the knapper. Further experimentation with this technique by others and looking for evidence on archaeological sites for similar tools may give scientists more information to help interpret the past archaeological record.
This picture was taken in the summer of The large piece of Burlington chert shows a large flake that was easily detached with the rocker-punch technique. The tools Mike was using at that time has changed slightly since then but the basic procedure has not. You don't have to be an archaeologist to help further scientific knowledge. Amateur astronomers have made great discoveries in their back yards.
Experimental archaeology is one of the ways both professional and amateur archaeologists are learning about the past. One of the most obvious areas of increased knowledge in primitive technology is stone tool making.
Since the early eighties, flintknapping as a hobby has been growing at an expediential rate. With so many people involved with stone tool making, archaeologists have been able to study and record everything from manufacturing techniques to new discoveries of lithic sources.
The cores, however, would also have been useful as heavy chopping tools. It is the regular diversification of the toolkit, incorporating tools made of sharp flakes and shaped core chopping tools that defines the boundary between the Pebble Tool Tradition and the Chopper-Chopping Tool Tradition. The latter had an extreme longevity, particularly in what are now China and Southeast Asia - about 1. Note how much more heavily worked this specimen is compared to the side chopper illustrated previously.
This piece is also bifacially worked, but to a much more regular sharp edge on the upper left in the side view left image. The Acheulean Handaxe Tradition The next major technological advance in the production of stone tools is exhibited in the Acheulean Handaxe Tradition.
Although the number of different types of tools used by peoples employing the Acheulean handaxes also increased compared to the Chopper-Chopping Tool Tradition, the real hallmark of the handaxe tradition is the craftsmanship and efficiency displayed in the production of the handaxes themselves.
The progressive refinement of lithic tool production, changing techniques to produce more cutting edge per unit of raw material, really becomes obvious when comparing the two earliest traditions to this one. This trend of increasing the efficiency of tools and raw material use characterizes the shift between major tool traditions.
The Acheulean Tradition had a great longevity, also on the order of 1. Late Stage European Acheulean Handaxe. Note the excellent control exhibited in the shaping of this tool. Also note that all of the cortex has been removed. Finally, compare the amount of effective cutting edge on this tool to the amount of effective cutting edge on the large pebble chopper illustrated in that section.
This technique is clearly an improvement in efficiency as well as technique. The Acheulean Handaxes were made in very much the same way that the other two types of tools were manufactured. That is, they were produced by bifacial flaking using the hard hammer technique for initial shaping.
A soft hammer technique was then used for final shaping and to produce a thin, sharp cutting edge. The last step was more common in the latter portion of the time period when these tools were being manufactured.
If you are working on Assignment , then you should return to the Exercise menu, by clicking on the "Main" button below, to continue at this point. You have just been introduced to the basic principles of lithic technology. The techniques and the major tool types illustrated in this exercise have all been found in the deposits at Olduvai Gorge.
We hope that this introduction will help you in the exercises that follow. Contents 2.
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