An Experimental Test of the Conservation of Raw Material in Flintknapping Skill Acquisition

Abstract Many lithic assemblages from around the world reveal little Variation that can be attributed to significant differences in skill among their makers. One possibility far the lack of skill variability could have resulted from a method of novice flintknapper instruction that embedded the learning process in the normal production of chipped stone tools. If skilled knappers allowed less-skilled individuals to participate in only the reduction stages they could successfully execute, then this learning process may be nearly invisible in the archaeological record. An embedded learning strategy could be extremely conservative of valuable raw material. This project experimentally compares an embedded learning strategy to a teaching method utilized by most modern knapping instructors far the pressure-flaking of small arrowpoints. The results not only show the successful learning and raw material conservation of the embedded strategy, but also suggest that young children may have been specifically excluded from knapping activities when raw material was highly valued.