Lithic Production: 1. The Cores

Abstract

Abstract Cores in a lithic assemblage bear indications of the manner in which they were last Vaked. They are informative about knapping procedures employed during the most recent stage of their usage. Often the reasons for discontinuing their exploitation (among which may be discard due to physical fault in the raw material or core exhaustion) can also be deciphered. Just how much information can be derived from cores about the earlier stages of reduction is more dificult to establish. It is likely that a single knapping concept (e.g., Levallois) was used throughout the reduction process of any given core. This does not mean necessarily that the methods and modes of Vaking (see below) remained unchanged throughout the whole sequence. When lithic reduction was initiated on small nodules, size restrictions would constrain the number of core reshaping cycles and thus the exploration of any technological repertoire to its fullest extent. In such instances, core reduction would likely be limited to the single set of tactics initially opted for. On the contrary, where raw material was ubiquitous and came in the form of large nodules, Vint knappers could often be more Vexible and several methods of Vaking might have been used along the process of working on a single core, hampering our attempts to reconstruct reduction processes based on core properties.