Abstract
Four ways archaeologists have tried to gain insights into how flintknapping creates lithic variability are fracture mechanics, controlled experimentation, replication and attribute studies of lithic assemblages. Fracture mechanics has the advantage of drawing more directly on first principles derived from physics and material sciences, but its relevance to controlled experimentation, replication and lithic studies more generally has been limited. Controlled experiments have the advantage of being able to isolate and quantify the contribution of individual variables to knapping outcomes, and the results of these experiments have provided models of flake formation that when applied to the archaeological record of flintknapping have provided insights into past behavior. Here we develop a linkage between fracture mechanics and the results of previous controlled experiments to increase their combined explanatory and predictive power. We do this by documenting the influence of Herztian cone formation, a constant in fracture mechanics, on flake platforms. We find that the platform width is a function of the Hertzian cone constant angle and the geometry of the platform edge. This finding strengthens the foundation of one of the more influential models emerging from the controlled experiments. With additional work, this should make it possible to merge more of the experimental results into a more comprehensive model of flake formation.
Highlights
MethodsWe examine the platform surface interior angle in three different datasets. First, we examine glass flakes (n = 142) and cores coming from the Dibble controlled experiments in flake formation [9, 19, 22, 24, 25]
There is considerable literature dedicated to understanding how flakes form
There is a relationship between platform width and the platform surface interior angle such that larger angles result in wider platforms, which is to be expected
Summary
We examine the platform surface interior angle in three different datasets. First, we examine glass flakes (n = 142) and cores coming from the Dibble controlled experiments in flake formation [9, 19, 22, 24, 25]. We attempt to replicate the findings from the Dibble glass data by measuring the PSIA in a large (n = 568) set of complete, unretouched flakes coming from 45 discrete reduction sequences produced in replicative experiments by three knappers who were naïve to the goals of this study. These flakes were made with the intent of replicating various Middle and Upper Paleolithic core reduction strategies from the initial decortification of the core through to flake production and core maintenance [42,43,44,45]. Hereafter this dataset is referred to as the MPI data
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