Flintknapping : Making and Understanding Stone Tools

by Whittaker, John C.

• ISBN13: 9780292790834
• ISBN10: 029279083X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-05-01
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

"...very attractive to readers interested in ancient crafts, survival skills, or the history of technology.... far superior to anything currently available." --James C. Woods, director, The Herrett Museum, College of Southern Idaho "A mid-range user's guide to flintknapping is long overdue. There have been some admirable attempts to produce such a volume, but these have been targeted at specific, fairly narrow audiences. Not so with Flintknapping .... [Whittaker's] clear aim is to reach professional archaeologists as well as hobbyists. I believe he achieves this goal with incredible skill and humor.... I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in flintknapping." --Plains Anthropologist Flintknapping is an ancient craft enjoying a resurgence of interest among both amateur and professional students of prehistoric cultures. In this new guide, John C. Whittaker offers the most detailed handbook on flintknapping currently available and the only one written from the archaeological perspective of interpreting stone tools as well as making them. Flintknapping contains detailed, practical information on making stone tools. Whittaker starts at the beginner level and progresses to discussion of a wide range of techniques. He includes information on necessary tools and materials, as well as step-by-step instructions for making several basic stone tool types. Numerous diagrams allow the reader to visualize the flintknapping process, and drawings of many stone tools illustrate the discussions and serve as models for beginning knappers. Written for a wide amateur and professional audience, Flintknapping will be essential for practicing knappers as well as for teachers of the history of technology, experimental archaeology, and stone tool analysis.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Using This Book

Learning to Knap

Flintknapping: Basic Principles

Flintknapping

Conchoidal Fracture

Properties of Material

Flakes and Cores

A Brief History of Flintknapping

Prehistory of Stone Tools

Recent "Stone-Age" People

Modern Knapping

Further Readings

Other Resources: Finding Other Knappers

Raw Materials

Stone Quality

Stone Materials

Heat-Treating

Collecting Material: Ethical and Practical Considerations

Safety

Proper Technique

Eyes

Hands

Other Body Parts

Lungs

Waste Disposal

Benefits

Hard-Hammer Percussion

Material and Equipment

Percussion-Flaking Principles: An Experiment

Percussion Flaking

Platforms

The Face of the Core

Terminations

Curvature

Starting a Core

Summary: Nine Essentials

Examples

Pressure Flaking

Tools

Raw Material

First Principles

Working Position

Beginning

Platform Preparation

Thinning

Notching

Other Pressure-Flaking Techniques

Summary: Six Essentials

Application: Small Triangular Points from the Southwest

Pressure-Flaking Problems

Patterned Pressure Flaking

Soft-Hammer Percussion and Bifaces

Definitions

Tools

Beginning

Soft-Hammer Principles and Results

Biface Thinning Flakes

Fracture Theories

The Blow Platforms

Biface Stages

Knapping Strategy and Other Considerations

Example: A Basic Biface

Biface Problems: Prehistoric Mistakes

Summary

Blades and Fluting

Blades

Platforms

Holding

Punches

The Blow Fluting

Example: Fluted Point

Using Stone Tools

Stone vs. Steel

Edges and Cutting

Making a Projectile Foreshaft

Going On

Archaeological Analysis of Stone Tools

Typology

Stone Tool Types and Change through Time

What People Did with Stones

Sources of Variation: Why Stone Tools Are Not All Alike

Analyzing Stone Tool Materials

Technology and What It Tells Us

Figuring Out Function

Questions of Style

Conclusions

Resources for Knappers

References

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.