THE ORGANISATION OF DRILL PRODUCTION AT A NEOLITHIC LITHIC WORKSHOP SITE OF BAI BEN, CAT BA ISLAND, VIETNAM

Abstract

We investigate stone drill point production, use, maintenance, and discard from a technological perspective at the Late Neolithic workshop of Bai Ben on Cat Ba Island, Northeastern Vietnam. Bai Ben contains over 18,000 retouched chert flakes classified as drill points and dating to c.3000BP. Large scale production of drills most likely took place for reasons of mass production of drilled organic and inorganic objects. Few of such drilled objects are found at the site, perhaps due to poor organic preservation or removal of finished objects for trade and exchange. An analysis of attribute on drills and cores examines the time-ordering of dimensional and morphological changes as reduction continued at the site. The research finds that drills were produced from a diverse range of nodules sizes, blanks, core technologies and raw materials, but similar blanks were selected to produce very similar drill point forms.