Flake Technology Research Articles

Chipped Stone Tool Industries of the Earlier Neolithic in Eastern Scotland

Summary This paper reviews chipped stone tool industries of the Earlier Neolithic in eastern Scotland. Assemblage size, raw materials and primary and secondary technology are discussed and some preliminary models are proposed: these suggest that assemblages are often small and dominated by flint. Very small quantities of Arran pitchstone are often present. Narrow flake and blade platform technologies are present and there is evidence for curation of cores. Bipolar working forms an important component of these assemblages. Retouched pieces are generally in keeping with earlier Neolithic forms in other regions: leaf shaped arrowheads, elongate plano-convex knives, and a range of convex scrapers. Polished axes are rare in the kinds of contexts in which flaked lithic artefacts are found. Lithic assemblages are often included in 'structured' deposits of varied kinds. The

An Assessment of the Free Hand Pressure Flaking Technique of Precontact North America

The “Don Crabtree” method of free-handpressure flaking has dominated research in the replication of prehistoric stone artifacts since the 1960s. It entails the use of relatively long pressure flakers, and is the one that has been employed by most researchers and contemporary knappers for replicating and interpreting various prehistoric pressure flaking reduction or production sequences or methods. An examination of the archaeological data, however, indicated that long pressure flakers occur relatively infrequently, and that the much more common technique that was practiced in time and space throughout North American prehistory was one based on the use ofcomparatively short pressure flakers. I propose that this latter technique be considered the “traditional” one.The primary objects of this paper are to present a critical evaluation of the archaeological and ethnographic data and to demonstrate that there has been a marked shift in pressure flaking technology since precontact times. This shift was from a technology based on short pressure flakers to the Crabtree pressure flaking method that entails the use of long flakers. In the concluding section of this paper, several avenues of research are suggested. These may aid in the accurate identification of pressure flakers of various sizes recovered from archaeological sites or in ethnographic collections. They may also aid in distinguishing such objects from those that might have been used for other tasks.

Progress in the development of polymer cholesteric liquid crystal flakes for display applications

Polymer cholesteric liquid crystal (PCLC) flake technology is being developed as an alternative display technology for flexible, reflective particle displays. The motion of PCLC flakes suspended in a host fluid can be controlled with an electric field, creating a way to electrically control the flakes' ability to brightly reflect light that is circularly polarized. The PCLC flake/host fluid dispersion has been successfully microencapsulated both in a polymer matrix and in gelatin micro-capsules. Microencapsulation will not only expand the applications scope of the technology, but also may aid in addressing some potential problem areas that are inherent to many forms of particle display technology. A second important development in PCLC flake technology involves the manufacture of shaped flakes based on soft lithography techniques. The size and shape of a flake impact its reorientation, and uniformly shaped flakes respond in a similar manner. The unique reflective properties of PCLC flakes also provide possible applications in areas such as optics and photonics, switchable ‘smart windows’ or conformal coatings, and information displays such as ‘electronic paper.’

Nahal Ein Gev I : A Late Upper Palaeolithic Site by the Sea of Galilee, Israel

This paper presents the results of renewed excavations at the late Upper Palaeolithic site of Nahal Ein Gev 1 on the eastern margins of the Sea of Galilee. The lithic assemblage is characterised by a chunky flake technology produced using a hard hammer. The tool repertoire is heavily dominated by burins on Clactonian truncations and notches. Other tool classes are not especially standardised, and there is a small microlithic component. The results broadly conform to those of the previous excavations and corroborate that the described assemblage is indeed representative of the site as a whole. It seems almost certain that the previously described skeletal remains are indeed integral to the site, which appears to represent a foraging camp as indicated by the broad range offaunal remains. The assemblage is placed within the framework of the later Upper Palaeolithic "Atlitian " entity. It is concluded that the techno-typolog- ical configuration of this and comparable Atlitian assemblages bear little, if any, resemblance to Levantine Aurignacian industries.

2.6-Million-year-old stone tools and associated bones from OGS-6 and OGS-7, Gona, Afar, Ethiopia.

When and how human ancestors first used tools remains unknown, despite intense research into the origins of technology. It has been hypothesized that the evolutionary roots of stone flake technology has its origin in percussive behavior. Before intentional stone flaking, hominins potentially engaged in various percussive behaviors resulting in accidental flake detachments. We refer to this scenario as the ‘by-product hypothesis.’ In this scenario, repeated detachments of sharp stone fragments eventually resulted in intentional flake production. Here, we tested the circumstances of accidental flake production as a by-product of percussive foraging in wild capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) from Brazil, the only nonhuman primate known to habitually produce sharp-edged flakes through a percussive behavior. We conducted field experiments where we tested the potential for accidental flake production during nut cracking. We provided three different types of stone with varied material properties as anvils to assess the circumstances in which accidental production of sharp-edged flakes occurs during nut cracking. A further freehand knapping experiment, with the raw material that exhibited accidental flake detachments, allows a direct comparison of flakes that have been intentionally produced by an experienced knapper and flakes produced during nut cracking by capuchin monkeys. Our results show that raw material quality and morphology significantly affect the rate of sharp-edged flake production as well as the resulting lithic signature of this behavior. In addition, accidental flakes produced during capuchin nut cracking on highly isotropic raw material are similar in many respects to intentionally produced flakes by a human knapper. Our field experiments highlight the fact that nut-cracking behavior can lead to the unintentional production of substantial quantities of sharp-edged flakes and therefore supports the ‘by-product hypothesis’ as a potential mechanism for the emergence of hominin flake technology.

Advances in fingerprint detection

Since the first conviction using fingerprints as evidence in 1902, the detection of fingerprints at crime scenes has become a key weapon in the identification and apprehension of criminals. Almost a century after Edward Henry published The Classification and Use of Fingerprints in 1898, a new magnetic flake technology has been purpose-designed for scene-of-crime investigations.

The problem of changes in Levallois technique during the technological transition from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic

In this article we examine the basis of primary flaking technology, the particularities of the Levallois-based industries of the transitional period from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic in the Near East (Southern Levant) and Central and Eastern Europe (southern Moravia and western Ukraine). An analysis is presented of the possible technological "generic" links between the Middle Palaeolithic Levallois industries and those of the transition from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic. Elements of similarity and difference are determined for the corresponding industries in the Near East and Europe, with regard to changes in core reduction strategies and typologies in the course of development from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Transitional industries.

Lithic Analysis and Cultural Change in the Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic of North Syria.

The late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) represents an important period of transition in North Syria, with the evolution from primitive to more advanced farming communities. The transition took place rather rapidly, involving a range of profound changes in human life-style. This paper examines the changing nature of the stone tool manufacturing behavior in this period. The analysis shows that the change is characterized by the increasing use of locally available raw material and a shift from well-organized blade to more expedient flake technologies. It is argued here that the change in lithic manufacturing was closely related to changing patterns in raw material economy, settlement pattern, and subsistence during the late PPNB. An ethnoarchaeological model suggests that, among those, the shift in subsistence or the decreasing importance of hunting appears to have been a more influential factor for the change in lithic manufacturing behavior.

On Observations on the Lower Palaeolithic of Northeast Asia

On Observations on the Lower Palaeolithic of Northeast Asia

Current Directions in West African Prehistory

The tempo of prehistoric research in Africa has quickened remarkably during the past decade, necessitating important revisions in our understanding of the archaeological record. Africa's past in general is emerging as more complex, and more instructive from a comparative point of view, than earlier believed. With the more routine application of radiometric dating, old assumptions about chronology have fallen. Earlier it had seemed that Middle and Late Stone Age technologies appeared very late in sub-Saharan Africa compared with analo­ gous Middle and Upper Paleolithic industries in Europe. This apparent lag led Graham C. Clark to declare in 1971 (51, p. 181) that much of Africa during the Late Pleistocene remained a kind of museum in which archaic tradi­ tions continued ... without contributing to the main course of human prog­ ress. Recent dates demonstrate that technological innovations like flake tools produced on prepared cores, punch-struck blades, and burins appear in Africa at about the same time they did in Europe (20,28, 269). Far from remaining a cultural backwater, as Clark further suggested (51, p. 67), it now appears possible that micro lithic technology, pottery, and cattle domestication were indigenous African developments. Improved chronological resolution has also revealed that the pattern of technological change in Africa was frequently mosaic in character. Just as stone-tool using hunter-gatherers continued to inhabit regions subject to settle­ ment by Iron Age farming groups up until this millennium in parts of Africa, so prepared core flake technology may have coexisted alongside backed micro­ lithic technology in the prehistoric past (191). This complex situation is quite different from the more homogeneous pattern of technological change familiar from Europe.