Flintknapping : making and understanding stone tools
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Flintknapping : making and understanding stone tools
University of Texas Press, 1994
1st ed
- : cloth
- : pbk
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Note
Bibliography: p. [305]-335
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Flintknapping is an ancient craft enjoying a resurgence of interest among both amateur and professional students of prehistoric cultures. In this new guide, John C. Whittaker offers the most detailed handbook on flintknapping currently available and the only one written from the archaeological perspective of interpreting stone tools as well as making them. "Flintknapping" contains detailed, practical information on making stone tools. Whittaker starts at the beginner level and progresses to discussion of a wide range of techniques. He includes information on necessary tools and materials, as well as step-by-step instructions for making several basic stone tool types. Numerous diagrams allow the reader to visualize the flintknapping process, and drawings of many stone tools illustrate the discussions and serve as models for beginning knappers. Written for a wide amateur and professional audience, "Flintknapping" will be essential for practicing knappers as well as for teachers of the history of technology, experimental archaeology, and stone tool analysis. John C. Whittaker is an assistant professor of anthropology at Grinnell College.
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction Using This Book
- Learning to Knap 2. Flintknapping: Basic Principles Flintknapping
- Conchoidal Fracture
- Properties of Material
- Flakes and Cores 3. A Brief History of Flintknapping Prehistory of Stone Tools
- Recent "Stone-Age" People
- Modern Knapping
- Further Readings
- Other Resources: Finding Other Knappers 4. Raw Materials Stone Quality
- Stone Materials
- Heat-Treating
- Collecting Material: Ethical and Practical Considerations 5. Safety Proper Technique
- Eyes
- Hands
- Other Body Parts
- Lungs
- Waste Disposal
- Benefits 6. Hard-Hammer Percussion Material and Equipment
- Percussion-Flaking Principles: An Experiment
- Percussion Flaking
- Platforms
- The Face of the Core
- Terminations
- Curvature
- Starting a Core
- Summary: Nine Essentials
- Examples 7. Pressure Flaking Tools : Raw Material
- First Principles
- Working Position
- Beginning
- Platform Preparation
- Thinning
- Notching
- Other Pressure-Flaking Techniques
- Summary: Six Essentials
- Application: Small Triangular Points from the Southwest
- Pressure-Flaking Problems
- Patterned Pressure Flaking 8. Soft-Hammer Percussion and Bifaces Definitions
- Tools
- Beginning
- Soft-Hammer Principles and Results
- Biface Thinning Flakes
- Fracture Theories
- The Blow Platforms
- Biface Stages
- Knapping Strategy and Other Considerations
- Example: A Basic Biface
- Biface Problems: Prehistoric Mistakes
- Summary 9. Blades and Fluting Blades
- Platforms
- Holding
- Punches
- The Blow
- Fluting
- Example: Fluted Point 10. Using Stone Tools Stone vs. Steel
- Edges and Cutting
- Making a Projectile Foreshaft
- Going On 11. Archaeological Analysis of Stone Tools Typology
- Stone Tool Types and Change through Time
- What People Did with Stones
- Sources of Variation: Why Stone Tools Are Not All Alike
- Analyzing Stone Tool Materials
- Technology and What It Tells Us
- Figuring Out Function
- Questions of Style
- Conclusions Appendix: Resources for Knappers
- References
- Index
by "Nielsen BookData"