PHOTOS: For Joshua Ream, an archaeological study of drift-made flakes, blades, platf

[BenjaminE]

Hello Joshua,

Since you are a longtime student of archaeology, and you have many flintknapping friends, here are photos from a study on drift punches, flakes, platform remnants, and bifaces, that have aroused the interest of archaeologists from around the world:



























This series shows bifacial flaking, flakes, lipped platform remnants, and the flaking agent known to archaeologists as "antler drift", or "antler punch".

Uniface, do you see anything from this study that bears any resemblance to actual prehistoric artifacts with regard to either the biface, the flakes, the distinctly lipped platform remnants, or the flaking agent known as an "antler drift", or an "antler punch"? Anything reminiscent of blade core technology, here??

 

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[tomclark]

Fantastic. I've looked at so many chips (but not extensively studied them..yet) that many of those look familiar. I have a 5 gallon bucket of coral chips from an archaic site lol!!!

 

[Quartzite Keith]

Well, like I already said, I'm not big on "reading flakes" but the whole "lipped flake" thing is something that comes up a lot among (the very few) quartzite knappers because it is considered a hallmark of wood percussion knapping. This is kind of true in that you certainly do tend to get lipped flakes when knapping quartzite with wood, but I'm not so sure the cause and effect is quit what as easy as that. My observation is that there are two minor things and one major thing that cause this. The minor things are hardness of the tool being used and platform set up. Lipped flakes are more common using "soft" tools like wood and elk antler and from isolated platforms at or even slightly above the center line.

Most important, though is not the tool used but how the power load is transferred into the biface's edge. The "lip" is from a strong inward force combined with a strong downward force, kind of like how a pressure flake in taken, with an inward force followed by a downward force, essentially pulling or peeling a flake off the face of the stone. If you watch a quartzite knapper working with a wood billet this motion is exaggerated enough to see. Without even realizing he's doing it, he strikes into the platform, then pulls down on the billet to "roll", "pull", "peel" off the flake. This is done mostly in the later stages of production because its main purpose to to deliver a power load that is capable of driving a flake beyond the middle of the face being worked (so that the biface gets thinner at a faster rate than it gets narrower) while at the same time dampening the bending stress he is putting on the biface so it doesn't snap. This is why the action is so exaggerated (and therefore noticeable) in quartzite knapping, it is a "snappy" "inflexible" material when compared to most other tool stones.

I get the same effect using a small antler hammer because on impact, I can either pull down on the hammer's handle or lift up on it which rolls the hammer head, causing that pulling motion. When the biface is held in the hand, it gets more complicated still since the biface itself can be tipped or rolled on impact to get different effects. So, for example, with a shaft punch, the biface is held in my hand, so as the punch strikes the edge, I can tilt the biface up, or pivot it front or back to get that "pulling", "dampening" type effect which does tend toward a "lipped flake" especially on an isolated platform near center line.

With full understanding (and apologies) that I know most of you have no interest in arcane, overly complex discussions of how the sausage is made. The short answer is that none of us know with any real level of certainty, and in trying to find out, the path is longer and more convoluted than you would think.

 

[BenjaminE]

Fantastic. I've looked at so many chips (but not extensively studied them..yet) that many of those look familiar. I have a 5 gallon bucket of coral chips from an archaic site lol!!!

I would love to see some of your flakes! Also, any bifaces broken during manufacture would be helpful as well. We might be able to reconstruct a match.

I have flaker data going back to the advent of the archaic era, in many parts of the country. It may be possible to match a tool, with a flake, or a biface, and an unknown or undocumented flaking technology.

 

[BenjaminE]

Well, like I already said, I'm not big on "reading flakes" but the whole "lipped flake" thing is something that comes up a lot among (the very few) quartzite knappers because it is considered a hallmark of wood percussion knapping. This is kind of true in that you certainly do tend to get lipped flakes when knapping quartzite with wood, but I'm not so sure the cause and effect is quit what as easy as that. My observation is that there are two minor things and one major thing that cause this. The minor things are hardness of the tool being used and platform set up. Lipped flakes are more common using "soft" tools like wood and elk antler and from isolated platforms at or even slightly above the center line.

Most important, though is not the tool used but how the power load is transferred into the biface's edge. The "lip" is from a strong inward force combined with a strong downward force, kind of like how a pressure flake in taken, with an inward force followed by a downward force, essentially pulling or peeling a flake off the face of the stone. If you watch a quartzite knapper working with a wood billet this motion is exaggerated enough to see. Without even realizing he's doing it, he strikes into the platform, then pulls down on the billet to "roll", "pull", "peel" off the flake. This is done mostly in the later stages of production because its main purpose to to deliver a power load that is capable of driving a flake beyond the middle of the face being worked (so that the biface gets thinner at a faster rate than it gets narrower) while at the same time dampening the bending stress he is putting on the biface so it doesn't snap. This is why the action is so exaggerated (and therefore noticeable) in quartzite knapping, it is a "snappy" "inflexible" material when compared to most other tool stones.

I get the same effect using a small antler hammer because on impact, I can either pull down on the hammer's handle or lift up on it which rolls the hammer head, causing that pulling motion. When the biface is held in the hand, it gets more complicated still since the biface itself can be tipped or rolled on impact to get different effects. So, for example, with a shaft punch, the biface is held in my hand, so as the punch strikes the edge, I can tilt the biface up, or pivot it front or back to get that "pulling", "dampening" type effect which does tend toward a "lipped flake" especially on an isolated platform near center line.

With full understanding (and apologies) that I know most of you have no interest in arcane, overly complex discussions of how the sausage is made. The short answer is that none of us know with any real level of certainty, and in trying to find out, the path is longer and more convoluted than you would think.

That is a great assessment. I experimented with wooden billets back around 2005, around ten years after getting out of flintknapping. So, I know what you are saying about pulled the flakes off.

When wood is used in indirect percussion, a great deal of lipping can be generated. My guess is that it has to do with the flaking agent mashing against the stone, whether we are talking about direct percussion, or indirect percussion.

Actually, years ago, Philip Churchill told me that both are forms of percussion. I do not believe he saw direct percussion and indirect percussion as being totally distinct from each other. Both involve percussive forces. Both produce percussive bulbing. Both involve the use of an impactor, or percussor. I think he saw alot of commonality between the two, before he died. Also, he was one of the best replicators in the world.

 

[BenjaminE]

Here is one of the earliest antler drift tools that I have seen in the records, since starting this research in 2010. This is from Russell Cave.

View attachment 1707478

View attachment 1707479

View attachment 1707480

View attachment 1707481

Note the early lithics associations.

 

[Out Of Time]

Here is a lovely flake of Napa obsidian. Curious about the technique employed to create it.....

 

[joshuaream]

Ben,

As we've discussed before, my interest in knapping is pretty superficial.

I like good discussions about ancient relics and how they were made, and I have a frame with some pretty eye-candy stuff because I couldn't take ancient relics with me where I live now.

I've shared pictures of flakes with you before from my fluted point site, here is one overshot flake that has the typical lipping that many flakes have. (Several hundred show this lip, I've measured a bunch of them and they are remarkably consistent and apparently slightly bigger than the lip seen at Clovis sites in the US.)



I hope things are good for you Ben. Glad you presented to some archaeologists interested in what you are doing.

Joshua

 

[BenjaminE]

Ben,

As we've discussed before, my interest in knapping is pretty superficial.

I like good discussions about ancient relics and how they were made, and I have a frame with some pretty eye-candy stuff because I couldn't take ancient relics with me where I live now.

I've shared pictures of flakes with you before from my fluted point site, here is one overshot flake that has the typical lipping that many flakes have. (Several hundred show this lip, I've measured a bunch of them and they are remarkably consistent and apparently slightly bigger than the lip seen at Clovis sites in the US.)

View attachment 1707669

I hope things are good for you Ben. Glad you presented to some archaeologists interested in what you are doing.

Joshua

Hello Joshua,

I also do not like knapping, because I do not like using hand tools.

But, I am very interested in cultural traits, especially long running cultural traits that appear to have their roots in the initial colonization of the Americas.

So, even though I do not really like knapping, the cultural significance of long running technological traits (that modern knappers were not able to understand) seem to afford a window into profound ideas that people were carrying around, in their minds, at the end of the Ice Age.

In other words, I realized that if we can crack the knapping, then I can see what they were thinking to some degree, and how they were looking at things, at a more remote period in history.

Most people cannot see that, though. What most people see is "breaking rocks".

But, my belief is that if people are exposed to the evidence, then they will eventually realize that there was something else going on. And, it is much more than just cracking rocks. What people were thinking is tied into the "something else". And, this is partly why modern people could not crack certain aspects of New World flintknapping, for many long decades. We are far from seeing into their minds, at least in this arena.

Yes, I have archaeologists from all over the place interested in my work. When I explain to them that I believe that there is evidence that points to the First Americans arriving with a full knowledge of a suite of inter-related technologies, and I explain to them how that can be understood, and even demonstrated, they actually are quite interested, I suppose because they are interested in history.

Anyway, that is a really impressive overshot for a few reasons. Because it is intact, I would have to wager that the shock was significantly reduced, while necessary force was generated. This does not necessarily happen by "accident". It is more like understanding a "formula" or an "equation" that needs to be balanced. The balancing of that equation could also tie into the lipping.

If an ancient knapper intended to conserve usable flakes, he may have been consciously thinking about the process, much the way one might think about a math equation.

 

[releventchair]

Ben: If I may inquire...
Has there been any context of punches when recovered having been deliberately buried/cached in soil?

I've lost track of who stated antlers (whole) were buried to keep their condition of characteristic intact.
Having used antlers for varied items ,and having long pursued their wearers it is clear that there are varied degrees of quality in what may be described as "tone".
A flexible state vs brittle. A certain percentage of moisture content keeping them in best tone.
Rattling antlers for example lose their tone if allowed to dry out. Mineral oil can change that as other more natural treatments could.
Even live deer can work soil with tines. Not unusual at a scrape .
Amount of sun is another factor but bucks with chipped dry tines and light antlers are different headgears than those with good tone.

All that to wonder if the characteristics of flexibility/vibration are important in a punch. Vs. a dried out one.
Just enough bite to stay on target and transfer energy ,without the punches fiberish nature (when in good tone) being damaged.

We vibrate glass to cut it. Left until vibration stops , the fracture is not assured. Controlling that vibration combined with impact being the cause of vibration using a punch ....Arouses punch quality/tone question if antler based..And if a guild in the care of such tools stored them in a controlled environment when not in use to preserve desired quality.

"Fresh"/toned stone vs. dried applies too of course.
Even annealed stone and time elapsed.
Context could tell more.

 

[BenjaminE]

Here is a lovely flake of Napa obsidian. Curious about the technique employed to create it.....

View attachment 1707542

View attachment 1707543

We really need to see the flat side, and the initiation, or the bulb of percussion.

 

[BenjaminE]

Ben: If I may inquire...
Has there been any context of punches when recovered having been deliberately buried/cached in soil?

I've lost track of who stated antlers (whole) were buried to keep their condition of characteristic intact.
Having used antlers for varied items ,and having long pursued their wearers it is clear that there are varied degrees of quality in what may be described as "tone".
A flexible state vs brittle. A certain percentage of moisture content keeping them in best tone.
Rattling antlers for example lose their tone if allowed to dry out. Mineral oil can change that as other more natural treatments could.
Even live deer can work soil with tines. Not unusual at a scrape .
Amount of sun is another factor but bucks with chipped dry tines and light antlers are different headgears than those with good tone.

All that to wonder if the characteristics of flexibility/vibration are important in a punch. Vs. a dried out one.
Just enough bite to stay on target and transfer energy ,without the punches fiberish nature (when in good tone) being damaged.

We vibrate glass to cut it. Left until vibration stops , the fracture is not assured. Controlling that vibration combined with impact being the cause of vibration using a punch ....Arouses punch quality/tone question if antler based..And if a guild in the care of such tools stored them in a controlled environment when not in use to preserve desired quality.

"Fresh"/toned stone vs. dried applies too of course.
Even annealed stone and time elapsed.
Context could tell more.

This is a really good question. I had not heard about the burying of antler, but certainly is a plausible idea.

I have snapped old dried out deer tines while carrying out experiments. But, the newer, fresher tines, that are more resiliant hardly break at all.

When antler is still in a fairly elastic state, it behaves like a really super hard plastic. It can be pounded on the broadside 10,000 times, but will still rebound to it's original shape.

The marks on the stone sometimes show that the antler is compressing, and decompressing, while struck. But, we cannot see this with the naked eye.

What this means, in my opinion, is that when the antler compresses it stores elastic potential energy. And, when the antler decompresses, it releases kinetic energy.

This process can be seen in other areas that ancient people knew about. For example, after long experiments with stiff wooden spears, and spear throwers, it was finally discovered that a green limber spear threw much better than a stiff wooden spear, because the green limber spear is capable of compressing and decompressing, while it is being launched with the spear thrower.

In a similar manner, antler is capable of storing, and releasing, energy when indirect percussion processes are being employed.

Also, with regard to vibration, people who use indirect percussion processes frequently develop a feel for vibrations, and an awareness of flaking speeds. I think it is safe to say that antler on antler indirect percussion impacts generate some of the fastest flaking speeds, because an elastic antler impactor is able to transmit a great deal of kinetic energy, into the antler punch, during impact. So, the vibrations are almost "spark-like".

But, much of this depends on the elasticity of the antler. And, green fresh antler is much more elastic than older dried out antler.