A Consideration of Blade and Flake Curvature

AbstractA method for characterizing blade and flake curvature is introduced and discussed in the context of broader prehistoric behavioral interpretation. The curvature value begins with interval measurements: angle length, angle depth, and thickness at midpoint. Each of these terms are described and techniques for obtaining each are discussed. From these, simple Euclidean geometry is used to derive an overall curvature value. Brief examples of how curvature is used for descriptive and problem oriented studies are introduced, and an example of the curvature measurement is then demonstrated on a population of flakes recovered from the production of triangular projectile points. The paper concludes with a discussion of fracture mechanics focusing on how and why curvature occurs on flakes and blades.

[1]  D. Stahle,et al.  An analysis and application of the size distribution of waste flakes from the manufacture of bifacial stone tools , 1982 .

[2]  Edwin N. Wilmsen,et al.  Functional Analysis of Flaked Stone Artifacts , 1968, American Antiquity.

[3]  William Andrefsky,et al.  Reduction Sequences and the Exchange of Obsidian in Neolithic Calabria , 1982 .

[4]  D. Crabtree.  Experiments in replicating Hohokam points , 1973 .

[5]  Alan Cottrell,et al.  Mechanical Properties of Matter , 1964 .

[6]  C. Russell Stafford,et al.  The Functional Hypothesis: A Formal Approach to Use-Wear Experiments and Settlement-Subsistence , 1983, Journal of Anthropological Research.

[7]  Bruce A. Bradley,et al.  Lithic Reduction Sequences: A Glossary and Discussion , 1975 .

[8]  S. Timoshenko,et al.  Theory of elasticity , 1975 .

[9]  B CollinsMichael,et al.  Lithic Technology as a Means of Processual Inference , 1975 .

[10]  Mark H. Newcomer,et al.  Some quantitative experiments in handaxe manufacture , 1971 .

[11]  Richard Michael Gramly,et al.  Raw Materials Source Areas and “Curated” Tool Assemblages , 1980, American Antiquity.

[12]  J. B. Sollberger,et al.  Prismatic Blade Replication , 1976, American Antiquity.

[13]  J. Speth.  Mechanical Basis of Percussion Flaking , 1972, American Antiquity.

[14]  Don E. Crabtree,et al.  The Corbiac blade technique and other experiments , 1969 .

[15]  J. C. Jaeger,et al.  Fundamentals of rock mechanics , 1969 .

[16]  Hansjürgen Müller-Beck,et al.  A History of Flint-Knapping Experimentation, 1838-1976 [and Comments and Reply] , 1978, Current Anthropology.

[17]  L. Raab.  Debitage Graphs and Archaic Settlement Patterns in the Arkansas Ozarks , 1979 .

[18]  M. Stevenson.  The Formation of Artifact Assemblages at Workshop/Habitation Sites: Models from Peace Point in Northern Alberta , 1985, American Antiquity.

[19]  D. Crabtree.  Mesoamerican Polyhedral Cores and Prismatic Blades , 1968, American Antiquity.