Abstract
Heat treatment of lithic raw material, i.e. the intentional alteration of silica rocks for improving their knapping quality, is a process that may require great care and precisely controlled conditions in order to avoid failure due to overheating. The physical causes of overheating remain poorly understood leading to problems in the interpretation of heat-treated artefacts and/or fire-related taphonomic alteration of different types of silica rocks. This driving force of overheating is investigated by a set of experimental heat treatment sequences with different ramp rates and different volumes of flint with a well-defined mineralogical composition, porosity and water content. The results of this experiment show the main cause of heat-induced fracturing to be the vapour pressure in fluid inclusions within the rocks. Heterogeneous thermal expansion could be discarded. The interdependence between volume and heating rate is also shown. These results have implications for the study of archaeological heat-treated rocks, the understanding of taphonomic heat-induced fracturing of silica rocks and experimental flint knapping.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.