A History of Flint-Knapping Experimentation, 1838-1976 [and Comments and Reply]

The earliest experiments were conducted to discover how to produce chipped stone tools using nonmetallic knapping tools. By 1880, the major perceived problems were solved: ancient stone tools were made by direct stone percussion, later tools might be finished by pressure flaking with an antler tine, and flakes, since they could be duplicated by natural forces, should be accepted as man-made only when found in quantity and made to a pattern. In the 1890s, in America, the acceptance of the European Paleolithic as genuine led to many wild claims about the age of American bifaces, and experimentation was aimed at proving that American bifaces were not ancient. The majority of publications between 1900 and 1919 concern the eolith controversy and present a clear case of argument and counterargument. The balance of evidence suggests that eoliths are not artifacts. Major in the 1920s was L. Coutier's experimentally informed discussion of the evolution of European lithic technology. The '30s are important in producing a number of detailed studies of particular lithic industries. Efficient archaeologist-knappers are found in France, England, and America; unfortunately, they seem to have little contact with one another. On the eoliths, Wen Chung Pei's 1936 report is so superb that it should never again have been necessary to argue their relative merits. Several publications of the 1940s indicate that previous experimentation is being forgotten and therefore repeated. However, by their excellence, H. Holmes Ellis's opus on all known methods of knapping stone and W. J. Knowles's description of the manufacture of a point from core to final basal notching partially redeem the decade. The 1950s are a period of consolidation in which little new work is pursued but that which has been learned reaches a larger audience. By 1960 the major lines of research pursued by present knappers were well established. The years since 1960 have seen an explosive growth in lithic experimentation accompanied by increasing sophistication and greater impact on archaeological studies of lithic industries.

[1]  E. Callahan.  Flake Removal Sequence and Cultural Inference , 1975 .

[2]  Robson Bonnichsen.  Note 1 from the experimental laboratory: experimentation as a means of constructing meaningful classifications of stone artefacts , 1968 .

[3]  A. Woodward.  I.—Early Man , 1917, Geological Magazine.

[4]  J Witthoft.  The art of flint chipping , 1958 .

[5]  Gordon G. Pond.  A technique for flaking projectile points , 1969 .

[6]  Bruce A. Bradley,et al.  QUANTITATIVE VARIATIONS IN FLAKED STONE DEBITAGE , 1976 .

[7]  J. D. Mcguire.  On the Evolution of the Art of Working in Stone , 1895, The American Naturalist.

[8]  R. Gould,et al.  The Lithic Assemblage of the Western Desert Aborigines of Australia , 1971, American Antiquity.

[9]  L. Leakey.  Adam's ancestors : the evolution of man and his culture , 1960 .

[10]  J. P. Gallagher.  A preliminary report on archeological research near Lake Zuai , 1972 .

[11]  Patricia Price Beggerly.  Edge Damage on Experimentally Used Scra Pers of Hawaiian Basalt , 1976 .

[12]  L. Lavine-Lischka.  LITHIC ANALYSIS AND CULTURAL INFERENCES FROM THE MIAMI WASH PROJECT , 1975 .

[13]  T. Hester,et al.  A Functional Analysis of “Clear Fork” Artifacts From the Rio Grande Plain, Texas , 1973, American Antiquity.

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

[15]  Hiroaki Kobayashi,et al.  The Experimental Study of Bipolar Flakes , 1975 .

[16]  B.-A. Gorodzow.  Les Procédés de fabrication des Instruments en Pierre , 1914 .

[17]  R. Gould.  A Case of Heat Treatment of Lithic Materials in Aboriginal Northwestern California , 1976 .

[18]  M. P. Dumont.  Comment … , 1970 .

[19]  L. Patterson,et al.  The Myth of Bipolar Flaking Industries , 1976 .

[20]  D. D. Kosambi.  Living Prehistory in India , 1967 .

[21]  J. Merriam.  The Eolithic Problem—Evidences of a Rude Industry Antedating the Paleolithic , 1906 .

[22]  S. Pope.  A Study of Bows and Arrows , 1923 .

[23]  W. Laughlin,et al.  Preliminary Analysis of the Anangula Unifacial Core and Blade Industry , 1966 .

[24]  L. Binford,et al.  Indian Sites and Chipped Stone Materials in the Northern Lake Michigan Area , 1963 .

[25]  Robson Bonnichsen.  Note 2 from the experimental laboratory: flake geometrics , 1968 .

[26]  C. Atkinson,et al.  The fracture mechanics of flint-knapping and allied processes , 1971 .

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

[28]  J de Visscher.  Experiments in flint chipping , 1955 .

[29]  N. Hammond,et al.  Maya lithic studies : papers from the 1976 Belize field symposium , 1976 .

[30]  R. Gould,et al.  Man's Oldest Craft Re‐created , 1970 .

[31]  J. D. Heinzelin.  Manuel de typologie des industries lithiques , 1962 .

[32]  Solly J B Sollberger.  The basic tool kit required to make and notch arrow shafts for stone points , 1969 .

[33]  Kensaku Hayashi,et al.  Fukui Microblade Technology and Its Relationship in Northeast Asia and North America , 1968 .

[34]  John D. Speth,et al.  Miscellaneous Studies in Hard-Hammer Percussion Flaking: The Effects of Oblique Impact , 1975, American Antiquity.

[35]  G. F. Mitchell.  The Larnian Culture: A Minimal View , 1971, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society.

[36]  G. Odell,et al.  Experimentation in the Formation of Edge Damage: A New Approach to Lithic Analysis , 1974 .

[37]  Jeremiah F. Epstein.  Centipede and Damp Caves: Excavations in Val Verde County, Texas, 1958 , 1962 .

[38]  B. Simpson.  The Inorganic Raw Materials of Antiquity , 1966 .

[39]  J. Flenniken,et al.  A comparison of the flaking qualities of Nehawka chert before and after thermal treatment , 1974 .

[40]  R Ascher,et al.  Recognizing the Emergence of Man , 1965, Science.

[41]  Jeffrey A Behm,et al.  Hixton Quartzite: experiments in heat treating , 1974 .

[42]  F. Knowles.  Stone-worker's progress : a study of stone implements in the Pitt Rivers Museum , 1954 .

[43]  K. Oakley.  Man the Tool Maker , 1963, Nature.

[44]  J. Fitting,et al.  The Paleo-Indian occupation of the Holcombe beach , 1966 .

[45]  Mary Ellen Goodman,et al.  The Physical Properties of Stone Tool Materials , 1944, American Antiquity.

[46]  Hasmukhlal Dhirajlal Sankalia,et al.  Stone age tools : their techniques, names and probable functions , 1968 .

[47]  B. Purdy,et al.  Thermal Alteration of Silica Minerals: An Archeological Approach , 1971, Science.

[48]  B. Foss Leach.  The concept of similarity in prehistoric studies : a test case using New Zealand stone flake assemblages , 1969 .

[49]  Ludwig Pfeiffer,et al.  Die steinzeitliche Technik und ihre Beziehungen zur Gegenwart , 1912 .

[50]  J. Michels.  El Chayal, Guatemala: A Chronological and Behavioral Reassessment , 1975, American Antiquity.

[51]  D. Brose.  Functional Analysis of Stone Tools: A Cautionary Note on the Role of Animal Fats , 1975, American Antiquity.

[52]  J. Sabloff,et al.  A history of American archaeology , 1974 .

[53]  J. Gunn.  Idiosyncratic Behavior in Chipping Style: Some Hypotheses and Preliminary Analysis , 1975 .

[54]  Earl H Swanson.  An introduction to Crabtree's experiments in flintknapping , 1966 .

[55]  A. Evans.  On the Flint-Knapper's Art in Albania. , 1887 .

[56]  Alfred Schwartz.  Some Suggestions for Organised Research on Flint Implements , 1914 .

[57]  M. Dauvois.  Précis de dessin dynamique et structural des industries lithiques préhistoriques , 1976 .

[58]  R. Knudson.  Inference and imposition in lithic analysis , 1979 .

[59]  H. Ellis.  Flint-working techniques of the American Indians : an experimental study , 1965 .

[60]  T. C. Hill,et al.  Prehistoric Occupation at the Holdsworth and Stewart Sites On the Rio Grande Plain of Texas , 1973 .

[61]  J. D. Clark,et al.  The Natural Fracture of Pebbles from the Batoka Gorge, Northern Rhodesia, and its bearing on the Kafuan Industries of Africa , 1958, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society.

[62]  M. Collins,et al.  Heat Treating of Chert: Methods of Interpretation and Their Application , 1974 .

[63]  Arnold M. Withers,et al.  Flint Quarries-The Sources of Tools and, at the Same Time, the Factories of the American Indian , 1951 .

[64]  C. Phagan.  A method for the analysis of flakes in archaeological assemblages : a Peruvian example / , 1976 .

[65]  Michel N. Brézillon,et al.  La dénomination des objets de pierre taillée. Matériaux pour un vocabulaire des préhistoriens de langue française , 1968 .

[66]  G E Sellers.  Observations on stone chipping , 1886 .

[67]  Christopher C. Vogel.  The manufacture of , 1948 .

[68]  Christopher L. Claggett.  The investigation. , 1978, Hospital supervisor's bulletin.

[69]  J. Powell.  STONE ART IN AMERICA , 1895 .

[70]  Paul Schumacher,et al.  Methods of making stone weapons , 1877 .

[71]  M. Newcomer,et al.  Nucléus sur éclat : technologie et utilisation par différentes cultures préhistoriques , 1974 .

[72]  Alfred S. Barnes.  L'Industrie des pierres à fusil par la méthode anglaise et son rapport avec le coup de burin tardenoisien , 1937 .

[73]  J. Blacking.  Edward Simpson, alias ‘Flint Jack’. A Victorian Craftsman , 1953, Antiquity.

[74]  B. Blackwood.  The technology of a modern Stone Age people in New Guinea , 1950 .

[75]  M. Gregg,et al.  Thermally Altered Siliceous Stone from Prehistoric Contexts: Intentional versus Unintentional Alteration , 1976, American Antiquity.

[76]  James A. Healy.  Applying the Ancient Craft of Knapping Through Controlled Fracturing , 1966 .

[77]  Charles M. Keller.  The development of edge damage patterns on stone tools , 1966 .

[78]  S. Wood.  The Antiquity of Man , 1873, Nature.

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

[80]  E. Garrison,et al.  Thermally Altered Novaculite and Stone Tool Manufacturing Techniques , 1975 .

[81]  Susan M. Chandler,et al.  The identification of technological variability through experimental replication and empirical multivariate analysis , 1976 .

[82]  Frank Kerkhoff,et al.  Zur bruchmechanischen Deutung der Schlagmarken an Steingeräten , 1969 .

[83]  P. Sheets,et al.  Pressure Blades and Total Cutting Edge: An Experiment in Lithic Technology , 1972, Science.

[84]  Hallett H. Hammatt,et al.  A Paleo-Indian Butchering Kit , 1970, American Antiquity.

[85]  J. B. Solberger,et al.  Some Additional Data On the Thermal Alteration of Siliceous Stone , 1973 .

[86]  Lawrence H. Keeley,et al.  Technique and methodology in microwear studies: A critical review , 1974 .

[87]  A. Ranere.  Toolmaking and Tool Use Among the Preceramic Peoples of Panama , 1975 .

[88]  A. McPherron.  The Juntunen site and the late woodland prehistory of the Upper Great Lakes area , 1967 .

[89]  L. Patterson.  Lithic wear patterns in deer butchering , 1975 .

[90]  J. Gunn,et al.  Hop Hill: Culture and Climatic Change in Central Texas , 1977 .

[91]  W. J. Knowles.  Irish Flint Arrow- and Spear-Heads , 1903 .

[92]  D E Crabtree,et al.  Experimental Manufacture of Wooden Implements with Tools of Flaked Stone , 1968, Science.

[93]  James P. Green.  McKean and Little Lake Technology: A Problem in Projectile Point Typology in the Great Basin of North America , 1975 .

[94]  Earl Herbert Swanson,et al.  Edge-ground cobbles and blade-making in the Northwest , 1968 .

[95]  The Climate, Environment and Industries of Stone Age Greece: Part III. , 1964 .

[96]  J F Snyder.  The method of making stone arrow points , .

[97]  F. Spurrell.  On Some Palaeolithic Knapping Tools and Modes of Using Them , 1884 .

[98]  B. Purdy.  Fractures for the Archaeologist , 1975 .

[99]  Ch. De Freminville.  Recherches sur la fragilité - L’Éclatement , 1914 .

[100]  R. Munro.  Archæology and false antiquities , 1905 .

[101]  T. Hester.  Ethnographic evidence for the thermal alteration of siliceous stone , 1972 .

[102]  E. H. Morris.  Archaeological studies in the La Plata district : southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico , 1939 .