Production Of Prismatic Blades Research Articles

The Proceduralization of Hominin Knapping Skill: Memorizing Different Lithic Technologies

Reconstructing the technical and cognitive abilities of past hominins requires an understanding of how skills like stone toolmaking were learned and transmitted. We ask how much of the variability in the uptake of knapping skill is due to the characteristics of the knapping sequences themselves? Fundamental to skill acquisition is proceduralization, the process whereby skilful tasks are converted from declarative memories (consciously memorized facts and events) into procedural memories (sub-consciously memorized actions) via repetitive practice. From knapping footage, we time and encode each action involved in discoidal, handaxe, Levallois and prismatic blade production. The structure and complexity of these reduction sequences were quantified using k-mer analysis and Markov chains. The amount of time spent on tasks and the pattern of core rotations revealed portions of these reduction sequences that are predisposed to being converted into procedural memories. We observed two major pathways to achieve this proceduralization: either a repetitive or a predictable sequence of core rotations. Later Acheulean handaxes and Levallois knapping involved a predictable platform selection sequence, while prismatic blade knapping involved a repetitive exploitation of platforms. Technologies and the portions of their reduction sequence that lend themselves to proceduralization probably facilitated the more rapid uptake of stone toolmaking skill.

Prismatic Blade Production at the Sinclair Site, Tennessee: Implications for Understanding Clovis Technological Organization

The Tennessee Division of Archaeology documented an extensive Paleoindian lithic quarry and workshop at the Sinclair site in Tennessee in 2008. We present the first detailed description of the lithic assemblage here, which focuses on aspects of its prismatic blade technology. Quantitative and qualitative attributes of 117 blades are assessed to characterize the assemblage and investigate human behaviors related to its formation. We then compare the blades from Sinclair to other blade assemblages. Blades at Clovis workshop sites are large and generally unstandardized. Mobile Clovis bands selected long, highly standardized blades from workshop sites, cached them as resource insurance, and crafted and used them as tools at campsites. The prismatic blade assemblage at Sinclair and other sites throughout the Midsouth suggests that this region played an important role in the development of prismatic blade technology at the end of the Pleistocene.

Outlining the knapping techniques: Assessment of the shape and regularity of prismatic blades using elliptic Fourier analysis

An important aspect of prismatic blade production is the choice of a knapping technique. This study tests the utility of elliptic Fourier analysis (EFA) for discriminating between different knapping techniques and offers a new perspective on blade variability. Our results indicate that there is an overlap in the outline shape and symmetry of individual blades produced by direct percussion, indirect percussion, and pressure debitage. Nevertheless, the EFA points out certain group-level differences regarding the shape and regularity of blade outlines and yields classification accuracy which is comparable to the previously proposed quantitative approaches for distinguishing blades produced by different knapping techniques. However, a more detailed analysis of technique-related factors shows that the emerging variability of blade outlines is more complex and that tripartite division might not always be suitable for reconstructing the past knapping behavior. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this method, and how it could complement the standard technological analysis in exploring and explaining blade variability.

Core and Periphery: Obsidian Craft Production in Late Postclassic (a.d. 1250/1300–1519) Tlaxcallan, Mexico

ABSTRACT This work present results of an analysis of supply, use, and production of obsidian artifacts in Tepeticpac and Metepec, two settlements of Late Postclassic (a.d. 1250/1300–1519) Tlaxcallan. The first sample (n = 9222) was recovered in two architectural compounds at Tepeticpac, a first-order settlement and part of the Tlaxcallan urban core. Tepeticpac materials exhibit a strong focus on prismatic blade production intended mainly for ceremonial or ritual use. The second sample (n = 14,915) comes from an architectural compound and a nearby obsidian discard area in Metepec, a peripheral second-order site. Metepec artifacts focused on the production of blades and bifacials, with greater evidence of different phases of obsidian processing indicating the presence of a nearby obsidian workshop. Comparison of obsidian craft production from both sites points towards decentralized craft production at Tlaxcallan and an open market economy for obsidian acquisition and consumption but also to marked political and socioeconomic hierarchies within the polity.

Variabilité des débitages laminaires au Second Mésolithique et au Néolithique ancien dans le nord de la France (VIIe et VIe millénaire BCE)

Cet article présente un bilan des techniques de taille du Second Mésolithique et du Néolithique ancien du 7e au 6e millénaire dans le nord de la France. Cette période est caractérisée par l'apparition d'une nouvelle pratique technique qui se manifeste par la production de lames régulières associées à de nouvelles armatures de flèche de forme trapézoïdale. D’après les études menées, il semble que seuls les débitages à la percussion indirecte sont documentés dans l’ouest et le nord de l’aire considérée. Néanmoins, des analyses plus fines devront être menées pour les débitages soignés des productions de lamelles régulières et des petits nucléus présents dans les contextes de l’est de la France. Il semble désormais qu’une méthode de débitage assez commune puisse se percevoir. Elle a été parfaitement décrite sur le site des Essart à Poitiers (méthode de l’Essart A, Marchand 2009). Cette méthode d’exploitation des blocs avec des flancs orthogonaux, un plan de frappe lisse peu incliné et une surface lamellaire quadrangulaire peu cintrée apparaît comme plutôt fréquente dans les assemblages à trapèzes du Mésolithique. Malgré un concept commun, l’étude de ce « complexe » des industries à trapèzes montre une certaine variabilité du point de vue des méthodes de taille. Il semble se dégager des entités parfois bien circonscrites au sein de cet ensemble. C’est le cas du Retzien qui s’oppose nettement au Téviécien de par les procédés de préparation systématique par micro-facettage mais également par une excellente unité stylistique des types de trapèzes. Le débitage sur tranche d’éclat pour l’installation des surfaces laminaires semble pour le moment cantonné d’une zone allant du Bassin parisien à la Belgique. L’est de la France se démarque par des productions avec des talons facettés et des plans très inclinés. Il faudra donc donner du sens à ces différentes pratiques qui pour le moment sont des résultats bruts.
 La dimension chronologique est un élément crucial qui devra être mieux précisé. En rapport avec les résultats obtenus sur les modalités de la percussion indirecte, un meilleur cadre chronologique permettra de comprendre la synchronie ou la diachronie des variantes observées des débitages. De nouvelles découvertes et de nouvelles datations permettent de mieux préciser l’introduction de la percussion indirecte vers 6200 cal. BCE dans le Bassin parisien.
 Enfin, il reste encore à mieux préciser les assemblages typologiques. Nous ne disposons pas encore suffisamment de séries qui permettent de bien comprendre l’évolution des différents types de trapèzes et triangles dérivés et si certaines méthodes de débitages sont particulières à certains types d’armatures. Malgré les imprécisions des datations et la difficulté de démêler les assemblages d’armatures, on peut retenir qu’il existe probablement des moments où certains types dominent. Ce travail reste totalement à faire et il est tributaire d’une meilleure résolution chronologique et des contextes des séries du Second Mésolithique

ANCIENT MAYA ECONOMY: LITHIC PRODUCTION AND EXCHANGE AROUND CEIBAL, GUATEMALA

AbstractThis article discusses the results of my diachronic analysis of lithic artifacts collected around Ceibal, Guatemala, in order to elucidate one aspect of long-term changing patterns in the pre-Columbian Maya economic systems and warfare. The importation of large polyhedral obsidian cores and local production of prismatic blades began as the result of sociopolitical development in Ceibal during the early Middle Preclassic Real-Xe phase. El Chayal obsidian was heavily used during the early Middle Preclassic period, while San Martín Jilotepeque was the principal source in the late Middle Preclassic, Late Preclassic, and Terminal Preclassic periods, and El Chayal once more became the major source in Ceibal during the Classic period. There is increasing evidence of the production and use of chert and obsidian points in the central part of Ceibal during the Late and Terminal Classic periods, indicating elites' direct involvement in warfare. Although the spear or dart points were predominant weapons in Classic Maya warfare, the increase in both chert small unifacial points and obsidian prismatic blade points in Ceibal points to bow-and-arrow technology by the Terminal Classic period.

The detachment of Levallois flakes using bipolar percussion at Howiesons Poort Shelter, South Africa

In the southern African archaeological sequence, the Levallois method of core reduction is considered to be a distinctive technological feature of the Middle Stone Age (MSA). Similarly, the transition from MSA to Later Stone Age (LSA) has been defined by a decline in the prevalence of Levallois and an increase in prismatic blade production and the use of bipolar percussion to reduce cores. Reanalysis of material recovered from Howiesons Poort Shelter - the eponymous site for the Howiesons Poort phase of the southern African MSA - has revealed that most of the Levallois cores from the site were knapped using a combination of freehand and bipolar percussive techniques. In these cases, freehand percussion was used to prepare and re-shape the cores, while bipolar percussion was used as a targeted strategy for detaching Levallois flakes. The discovery of this combination is significant because the accepted definition of the Levallois method prescribes the use of freehand, hard-hammer percussion only. This paper describes the trends in core morphology and reduction processes associated with this bipolar Levallois strategy and evaluates some possible motivations for using bipolar percussion to detach Levallois flakes. Analysis of core dimensions and reduction sequences suggests a gradual strategic transition between freehand Levallois and bipolar bidirectional-opposing reduction strategies as cores become smaller. Contrary to traditional depictions of the technique, bipolar percussion was used by knappers at Howiesons Poort Shelter on cores of a wide range of sizes regardless of material, particularly in situations where control over the force and location of flake removing blows was critical. As well as adding to a growing image of the technological and behavioural complexity of Howiesons Poort (and indeed MSA) hominins, these discoveries have important implications for our understanding of both the Levallois reduction method and the bipolar percussive technique.

VARIATION IN RESIDENTIAL PRISMATIC BLADE PRODUCTION AND STATUS DURING THE EARLY CLASSIC AT PALO ERRADO, VERACRUZ

AbstractIntrasite variation in the production and consumption of obsidian prismatic blades is investigated at the Protoclassic to early Late Classic period site of Palo Errado in Veracruz, Mexico. There, the recovery of macrodebitage, as well as eraillure flakes, platform overhang flakes, and debitage with 90 degree angles between dorsal scars indicates that local blade production occurred at the site from imported marcocores and large polyhedral cores. In addition, detailed ceramic and obsidian data from excavated contexts demonstrate that the elite were involved in blade production and consumption, while the inhabitants of Mound 9, a non-elite, residential workshop locus, were specializing in prismatic blade production for exchange. At some point in the Early Classic period, the elite of the site undergo a significant change that intensifies their use of status markers, such as serving ware and personal adornment that corresponds to a decrease in elite blade production and an increase in blade consumption. However, no change in how blades are used by the elite is evident in this transition. While the vast majority of the obsidian artifacts recovered were made from Zaragoza-Oyameles obsidian, significant intrasite variation in minor sources, as well as the types of blades recovered and degree of edge wear suggests that the elite and nonelite participated independently in a variety of obsidian provisioning networks. In the case of the Mound 9 residents, the ceramic and obsidian assemblage suggests that their economic independence corresponded to a physical and ideological separation from the rest of the site. In general the production and consumption of obsidian does not suggest its use in a local political economy. Rather, the inhabitants of Palo Errado may have been exchanging and obtaining obsidian commodities within local and regional marketplaces.

Refining Our Understanding of Howiesons Poort Lithic Technology: The Evidence from Grey Rocky Layer in Sibudu Cave (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa)

The detailed technological analysis of the youngest Howiesons Poort occupation in Sibudu Cave, layer Grey Rocky, has shown the importance of blade production (with different knapping methods involved), but also of flaking methods in coarse grained rock types. Moreover, new strategies of bifacial production and microlithism were important. Grey Rocky lithic technology shows a really versatile example of reduction strategies that were highly influenced by the characteristics of the rock types. This lithic assemblage is another example of the technological variability linked to the Howiesons Poort technocomplex. The reasons for this variability are still difficult to elucidate. Discrepancies between sites might be for different reasons: diachronic variations, functional variations, organizational variations or maybe different regional variations within what has been recognized traditionally and typologically as Howiesons Poort. The technological comparison of the Grey Rocky assemblage with assemblages from other Howiesons Poort sites demonstrates that there are common technological trends during the late Pleistocene, but they still need to be properly circumscribed chronologically. On the one hand, Howiesons Poort characteristics such as the bifacial production in quartz are reminiscent of production in some Still Bay or pre-Still Bay industries and the flake production or the prismatic blade production described here could be a point in common with pre-Still Bay and post-Howiesons Poort industries. On the other hand, the detailed analysis of the Grey Rocky lithics reinforces the particular character of this Howiesons Poort technocomplex, yet it also shows clear technological links with other Middle Stone Age assemblages.

Visual and geochemical analyses of obsidian source use at San Felipe Aztatán, Mexico

Social inequality is a problem at the forefront of anthropological inquiry. The material record can give us valuable information about what resources were used at a given archaeological site. In this study, I have used obsidian and its distribution as a proxy for access to resources. By determining which obsidian sources were used and by whom, we can begin to understand the differential access to resources which is paramount to understanding social inequalities.This research uses a combination of visual sourcing and XRF geochemical sourcing to identify patterns in volcanic sources of obsidian artifacts at Post-classic San Felipe Aztatán in Nayarit, Mexico. Despite excellent quality sources being easily accessible, more sophisticated lithic reduction techniques such as prismatic blade production, seem to have been used only with more distant sources. With no substantial qualitative differences among obsidian sources, purely social factors likely resulted in the temporal and spatial distribution patterns at San Felipe Aztatán. Here, the limited area in which Pachuca obsidian is found may indicate an area of elite residence or elite activity, while its limited temporal distribution may reflect the emergence of trade and influence of the Aztatlán tradition dating to the Amapa phase during the Classic Period (500–750 CE).This research may have greater application for other sites across space and time. If obsidian source can be utilized to identify social stratification, we may be able to understand the spatial and social organization of specific sites as well as the complex dynamic trading relationships among sites.

Their lips are sealed: identifying hard stone, soft stone, and antler hammer direct percussion in Palaeolithic prismatic blade production

The present experiment examined the differentiation between hard stone, soft stone, and antler hammer in Upper Palaeolithic direct percussion, prismatic blade production through the experimental knapping by two knappers who were asked to produce a series of medium-sized blades. The use of two knappers in the experiment tested knapper variability in the resultant experimental assemblage. While the majority of the attributes of blades and proximal fragments – including the presence of lipping, platform preparation, bulb presence and prominence, and curvature amongst others – did not vary significantly in regards to which hammer type either knapper used, a number of blade attributes differed, significantly yet weakly, and there was almost no direct correlation between the individual knappers blades and the hammer type they used. This suggests strongly that for a given goal of producing medium-sized blades, this can be accomplished equally well using antler, hard stone, or soft stone hammers, and the resultant blades will be difficult to tell apart. Therefore, based on the results of this series of knapping experiments, we would be hesitant in using the 21 variables tested here to differentiate between blades produced with antler, hard stone, and soft stone hammer types in the archaeological record.

7 Peasant Artisans: Household Prismatic Blade Production in the Zacapu Region, Michoacan (Milpillas Phase 1200–1450 AD)

<i>7 Peasant Artisans: Household Prismatic Blade Production in the Zacapu Region, Michoacan (Milpillas Phase 1200–1450 AD)</i>

Un habitat de la fin du Mésolithique dans le Centre-Ouest de la France : L’Essart à Poitiers (Vienne)

The excavation of L’Essart (Poitiers) makes it possible for the first time in the west of France to understand a very particular habitat, along a river and very much marked by the firing activities. The substrate of the site assigns the shape of a dome surrounded to the east by the Clain River, to the west by a channel. Abundant vestiges allotted to the recent Neolithic lay in the lower half of a layer of brown silts. Immediately subjacent, a level of ten centimetres, located at the top of orange silts, contained burnt stones structures: 39 hearths (circular area posed flat approximately one meter of diameter) and 14 dismantled hearths. It is dated from the final Mesolithic by the extremely abundant lithic material discovered in the layer. Lithic industry is carried out in a preferential way on bajocians flints available on the slope (62%) and oxfordians flints (8%) known to approximately two kilometres. The principal characters of this industry are a frontal exploitation of core, a production of prismatic blades, many notches of Montbani type on the blades, asymmetrical trapezoids with concave truncations (of which Trapezoids of Payré), right-angled trapezoids with concave truncations, scalene triangles with flat retouches and arrows of Montclus. The analogies with Retzian (Vendée and Loire-Atlantique) are certainly numerous, but it is rather about a relationship in a vaster unit that remains to define. The non anecdotic presence of the arrows of Montclus involves the discussion on the question of the zones of contacts between Neolithic and Mesolithic of the second half of the VI th millenium BC.

Socioeconomic Implications of Chipped Stone from the La Entrada Region, Western Honduras

The analysis of 11,251 chipped stone artifacts recovered from the La Entrada region in western Honduras has made it possible to elucidate socioeconomic implications through the study of systems of production and distribution of the lithic artifacts from the Middle Preclassic (900–300 B.C.) through the Late Classic (A.C. 650–900) periods. First, during the Late Preclassic and Early Classic (300 B.C.–A.C. 400) in this region, the specialized production of prismatic blades began, and developed through time; yet the non specialized production of percussion flakes from obsidian cobbles from San Luis and an unknown source (referred to as Y) and locally obtained prime material (such as chalcedony and agate) continued from the Middle Preclassic to the Late Classic. Second, according to the obsidian analysis, the regional centers which were involved in the possible Copan redistribution sphere seem to have functioned as distribution centers for Ixtepeque obsidian to the smaller sites in the region. Third, the La Entrada region participated in an exchange system through which Ixtepeque obsidian was brought to the SE Maya lowlands, which was under Copan's socioeconomic control in the Late Classic period. In contrast, there was not much connection with other areas to the east, such as (non-Maya) central Honduras.

The Chipped Stone Industry of Cihuatan and Santa Maria, El Salvador, and Sources of Obsidian from Cihuatan

The chipped stone industry of Cihuatan and Santa Maria, Postclassic sites of north-central El Salvador, is discussed briefly in terms of behavioral/technological typology. The industry was based almost exclusively on obsidian and emphasized specialized production of prismatic blades. Source determinations by X-rayfluorescence and neutron activation analysis of 20 obsidian specimens from Cihuatan indicate that at least three highland Guatemalan sources supplied obsidian to the site. Twelve specimens are attributed to the Ixtepeque source, seven to El Chayal, and one to San Martin Jilotepeque. The multiple-source procurement pattern is interpreted as a hedge against the fragility of Postclassic sociopolitical alliances and shifting exchange networks. One of the most important advances in Mesoamerican lithic studies of recent years has been the development of behavioral and technological typologies based on linear reduction models of manufacturing trajectories (Clark 1979, 1981 la; Clark and Lee 1979; Moholy-Nagy et al. 1984; Sheets 1972, 1975a, 1978a). These typologies focus on the behavior involved in the manufacture, use, and recycling of lithic artifacts, thus attempting to model the real technological structure of lithic industries. Behavioral/technological typologies are now available for about 20 sites in the Maya area and the southeastern periphery of Mesoamerica (Fowler 1985). Another significant advance has been the development of techniques for accurate, high-precision chemical characterization of obsidian as a means of source determination (Stross et al. 1968; Stross, 1976). The results of precise geochemical analyses to determine the sources of archaeological obsidian in Mesoamerica have led to better understanding of the nature and degree of long-distance exchange in the area. Three factors make obsidian an excellent indicator of long-distance exchange contacts: (1) good-quality, workable obsidian occurs in a relatively limited number of geological deposits; (2) obsidian artifacts deposited in archaeological contexts are virtually imperishable; and (3) it is possible to determine, within limits of statistical certainty, the geological sources of obsidian artifacts through precise geochemical characterization. It is a fair assumption that obsidian exchange is an indicator of the exchange of other items that left no trace in the archaeological record. At the very least, the buyers had to offer something to the sellers in exchange for the obsidian. Whether or not perishable goods moved in appreciable quantities along the same routes of exchange as obsidian (see Drennan 1984), the reconstruction of Precolumbian obsidian exchange in Mesoamerica sheds light on prehistoric interregional contacts and exchange networks in general and provides a foundation for hypotheses concerning ancient sociopolitical ties that operated over long distances. When behavioral/technological typologies and obsidian source determination are used conjunctively, the analyst leams more about the cultural context within which a given lithic industry developed and functioned (Moholy-Nagy et al. 1984). The resulting reconstruction is more detailed and is a more fruitful source of hypotheses than either of the approaches used alone. The chipped stone industry of the ancient settlements of Cihuatan (Bruhns 1980; Fowler 1981; Kelley 1985) and Santa Maria (Fowler 1981), in the Paraiso (or Cerr6n Grande) Basin of north