Excellent article on bipolar toolkit

[Fred250]

https://www.apanarcheo.nl/Partitioning-the-Palaeolithic-vdDrift.pdf

Great article by a Dutch researcher in English. One great point he makes on why the bipolar strategy was never completely replaced by freehand is bipolar groups were able to lighter and further from good material sources as you could always find a couple useful cobbles. Many artifacts pictured in the article would be scoffed at if posted on one of the artifact forums.

 

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[ToddsPoint]

Here in central IL they used bipolar to get usable flakes from small, tough, roundish chert nodules. There is no flint source here other than glacial material. More often than not, the nodules are too small and tough to knap freehand. You set the small nod on an anvil and smash it with a hammerstone and hopefully get a flake or two.

 

[Relicgrubber]

https://www.apanarcheo.nl/Partitioning-the-Palaeolithic-vdDrift.pdf

Great article by a Dutch researcher in English. One great point he makes on why the bipolar strategy was never completely replaced by freehand is bipolar groups were able to lighter and further from good material sources as you could always find a couple useful cobbles. Many artifacts pictured in the article would be scoffed at if posted on one of the artifact forums.

There is big difference in the artifacts from the article vs. just rocks posted here and other forums.

Also... Context is vital in Identifying True Artifacts vs. "Rocks" pulled from a creeks or dry land.

I could go on and on about this, but will stop right here...

 

[Fred250]

Here in central IL they used bipolar to get usable flakes from small, tough, roundish chert nodules. There is no flint source here other than glacial material. More often than not, the nodules are too small and tough to knap freehand. You set the small nod on an anvil and smash it with a hammerstone and hopefully get a flake or two.

https://www.apanarcheo.nl/the%20Paleolithic%20how%20and%20why.pdf

Link to a free 145 book by the same author on the evolution of stone tool production. One section has great images and his thoughts on how and why these pebble tools were made.

 

[Fred250]

There is big difference in the artifacts from the article vs. just rocks posted here and other forums.

Also... Context is vital in Identifying True Artifacts vs. "Rocks" pulled from a creeks or dry land.

I could go on and on about this, but will stop right here...

According to the author it is possible to discern natural fractures in rock from bipolar knapping by examining the ripples, but this is surely beyond most of us.