Technology and Terminology of Knapped Stone - IRIT

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Only the major milestones in the constitution of this new discipline need to be mentioned : the first symposium on the subject was held in Vancouver in 1977 97 , followed in 1980 by Keeley's synthesis 98 , the first comprehensive piece of work since Semenov's. Research within the discipline concerns all prehistoric periods, even though convincing results pertaining to the more ancient ones are at present difficult to obtain 99 . The study of wear traces requires an understanding of the rock types used to make tools, as well as of the contact substances. This knowledge is acquired through the sustained practise of experimentation. It is by systematically alternating archaeological observation and experimental study that one succeeds in understanding the different stages of tool manufacture and use (hafting, use pattern, sharpening, etc.). The technical approach varies according to the archaeological question and may involve different optical instruments, such as stereoscopic microscopes, metallographic microscopes, or scanning electron microscopes. In their current form, microwear studies pertain to different research designs. Either they try to answer a number of questions, such as : - what material was processed with the tool ? - what was the duration of the work ? - what type of movement was performed ? - was the tool hafted ? The aim is thus essentially to explain how a tool was used, or to compare the results with typological data. Alternatively, such studies focus on the origin, the cause, of wear traces, thus proving efficient for defining the very concept of what a tool is. Indeed, by allowing the reconstruction of composite tools, microwear studies have cast light on the problem of hafting. The study of wear traces also contributes to the detection of natural alterations. However, one should bear in mind that a result valid for a single site cannot be considered universally valid without verification. Microwear studies are now incorporated into all palaeoethnically oriented research, since it is often the only way to confirm hypotheses about domestic, economic, or artistic activities. The agricultural realm 100 certainly contributed the most to enrich possible interpretations, thanks to the combined studies of wear traces, knapping techniques (pertaining to the choice of blanks), paleobotany and archeozoology. 4. Technical behaviou r Technological analysis is proving a most fruitful approach for deciphering lithic assemblages in terms of technical activities to begin with, and then in terms of technical behaviour through the assessment of motor dexterities and cognitive capacities. 4.1. Assessmen t The assessment of motor dexterities and cognitive capacities is a fundamental process, because any interpretation depends upon it for its significance and credibility. It can always be undertaken, whatever cultures and human types are concerned, because it is based on lithic production, as it is possible to assess prehistoric people's subsistance strategies by examining the faunal remains from archaeological sites. It depends however both on the quality of the excavations and on that of the recovered material, and also to a great extent on the type of site : there will be little to say about a short-term hunting camp containing only a small assemblage, but far more about a knapping workshop where several chaînes opératoires may be represented 101 . This type of work can nevertheless be carried out on old museum collections, provided the information concerning the context of finds is sufficient. 97 Lithic Use-wear Analysis, 1979. 98 Keeley, 1980. 99 Beyries 1993. 100 Anderson, 1992. 101 Karlin, Ploux, 1994. 99
As we expounded in the introduction, the transformation of a block of stone for the purpose of obtaining one or more more tools requires both a project and the ability to implement it. According to J. Pelegrin 102 , a stone-knapper's reasoning involves thinking out a sequence of cognitive and sensomotor operations, and the different stages in the implementation of the project can be outlined thus : perception of the task to carry out, followed by the choice of the "ideal" solution amongst all the known possibilities (the mental representation of the artefact). At this stage, the conceptual scheme is worked out, and the operations necessary to its completion are devised. The knapper then follows an operative knapping scheme (the sequence of technical operations), applying all his skill (competence born of experience, of sustained practice) and knowledge to complete his project with a varying degree of dexterity. A poorly executed operative scheme can be saved by technical tricks derived from the knapper's skills; conversely, a clumsy slip of the hand can be corrected by a good conceptual knowledge of possible recovery procedures. It is through the unravelling of operative knapping schemes that inferences can be made concerning the degree of skill, the quality of the performance and the intelligence of the knapper. The analysis of chaînes opératoires in terms of psychomotor processes shows that it is possible to go beyong the identification of technical actions, possible to highlight, for each stage of the chaîne opératoire, the choices, constraints and preferences of the knapper, the reasons for his success or failure, possible to see through what operations each project is implemented. This necessarily requires an appraisal based on criteria established by an experiementer and, if possible, on refits. 4.2. Interpretatio n New lines of research for the interpretation of prehistoric knappers' competences have developed with the advent of a "cognitive archaeology". However, interpretations of technical behaviour are only conceivable for past Homo sapiens sapiens, because he is assumed to have had the same cognitive and motor abilities as modern man. It would be dangerous to extend this assumption to "pre-sapiens" species, whose competences can only be assessed through the study of lithic material 103 . Nevertheless, primatology and ethology have recently focused on the technical patterns of behaviour of non-human primates (chimpanzees in particular 104 ), and the results have contributed to a renewal in the studies concerned with this particular branch of prehistory. The need for such analogybased approaches increases as interest shifts to earlier periods. Archaeology as a whole, and prehistory in particular, has been very receptive to the cognitive sciences 105 ; this comes as no surprise, since archaeology is based on the study of material culture, on the analysis of artefacts, which are the products of human intelligence. The discipline can only be enriched by attempts to lay bare, to understand, the psychological and motor mechanisms that subtend these productions. How was the technical knowledge relative to stone-knapping transmitted ? What learning processes were involved 106 ? Is it possible to detect personal specificities 107 ? Such are some of the questions that a cognitive approach - of which the concept of chaîne opératoire is an integral part - now enables us to consider. Prehistory has gained a vast research area, yet little explored and sometimes speculative, but so far no regularities can be derived from results that remain very context-bound. Some themes are particularly promising. For instance, the investigation into learning processes, through an appraisal of the difficulty with which skills can be mastered, leads directly to the analysis of such major phenomena as specialization, innovation and borrowing, three notions that illustrate the social importance of techniques. 102 Pelegrin, 1991b, 1995. 103 Roche, Texier, 1996. 104 Joulian, 1994. 105 There is a wealth of littérature on this subject. Major references can be found in Gibson, Ingold (eds), 1993 and Renfrew, Zubrow (eds), 1994. 106 Roux, 1991 ; Karlin, Julien, 1994; Roux, Bril, Dietrich, 1995. 107 Ploux, 1989. 100
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Technology and Terminology of Knapp
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In the same collection Préhistoire
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Authors Marie-Louise Inizan*, Mich
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Chapter 4 : Debitage 59 The core De
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List o f illustration s Fig. 1 Raw
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Foreword Many students and research
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Why? Technology has its place withi
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In blade debitage 17 , for instance
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Chapter 1 Raw material s Knapped ha
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2. Knappin g suitability o f hard r
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• A single block of raw material
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Raw material procuremen t strategie
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unmodified block roughed ou t or pr
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Knapping, shaping, flaking, retouch
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could not be reached with such othe
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ipples, hackles (see p. 142). Parad
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• Languette 31 breaks occurring o
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- distinguish intentional from unin
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Fig. 9 — Blade debitage carried o
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Chapter 3 Shaping We use the term s
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to another in the course of roughin
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Fig. 13 — Example of bifacial sha
Page 50 and 51: aspects be from now on taken into c
Page 52 and 53: Polyhedral and spheroidal shaping a
Page 54 and 55: Fig. 18 — Preforms. 1 : experimen
Page 56 and 57: (fig. 18 : 3), using indirect percu
Page 58: As a rule, the part played by shapi
Page 61 and 62: study should not be dissociated fro
Page 63 and 64: Fig. 21 62 1 — Relatively simple
Page 65 and 66: Fig. 22 — Volumetric representati
Page 67 and 68: 66 Fig. 23 — Levallois debitage o
Page 69 and 70: 1. Recurrent unipolar Levallois met
Page 71 and 72: 0 1 2 3 9 Fig. 26 — Various examp
Page 73 and 74: 72 Fig. 28 — Phonolite cleaver on
Page 75 and 76: In the repeated production of blade
Page 77 and 78: Indirect percussion Strangely enoug
Page 79 and 80: Fig. 31 — Pressure debitage of bl
Page 81 and 82: method was invented in a Sibero-Mon
Page 83 and 84: These seven characteristics, as wel
Page 85 and 86: If the microburin blow has removed
Page 87 and 88: Fig. 34 — Various examples of spe
Page 90 and 91: Chapter 6 Technology a s a means to
Page 92 and 93: 1. Observation o f surface conditio
Page 94 and 95: 3. Framework fo r th e readin g o f
Page 96 and 97: Fig. 36 — Refitting. Centripetal
Page 98 and 99: hammer, the stability of the core o
Page 102 and 103: Chapter 7 0 I ~"~2 3 4 o Graphic re
Page 104 and 105: 103 Fig. 37 — Acheulean handaxe,
Page 106 and 107: Fig. 39 — Pressure-flaked bladele
Page 108 and 109: Fig. 41 — Examples of orientation
Page 110 and 111: 1 I Fig. 43 — Two layouts of view
Page 112 and 113: 4. Graphi c desig n an d techniqu e
Page 114 and 115: Fig. 46 — Tracing the outline and
Page 116 and 117: Fig. 47 — Uncompleted laurel leaf
Page 118 and 119: Fig. 48 — Graphical treatment of
Page 120 and 121: Fig. 50 — Large convex Mousterian
Page 122 and 123: 6. Symbol s Although multiple views
Page 124 and 125: Clean breaks are indicated by two s
Page 126 and 127: Fig. 54 — Schematic representatio
Page 128: indicated by numbered arrows. The p
Page 131 and 132: ANVIL. A block of relatively hard s
Page 133 and 134: produced at the very moment the fla
Page 135 and 136: Fig. 60 — Inclination of a burin
Page 137 and 138: Fig. 62 — Various types of butts.
Page 139 and 140: If the morphology of the raw materi
Page 141 and 142: 7 8 9 11 1 2 13 1 4 1 5 Fig. 65 —
Page 143 and 144: - or from a cobble, a slab, a core,
Page 145 and 146: INVERSE. A term defining a position
Page 147 and 148: distinguish the types of certain to
Page 149 and 150: Fig. 72 — The stone-knapper's set
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5 Fig. 74 — Various examples of p
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1 2 3 Fig. 75 — Position of remov
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0 1 cm Fig. 78 — Proximal fragmen
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conventionally applied to "the fash
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AKAZAWA T., ODA S., YAMANAKA I. 198
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CRABTREE D.E. 1966 A stone worker's
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LAPLACE G. 1964 Essai de typologie
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SEMENOV S. A. 1964 Prehistoric tech
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Multilingual vocabulary
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pressure platfor m : proximal: f i
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ENGLISH : FRENCH abrasion : abrasio
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Levallois (méthode, éclat, etc.)
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punctiform : punktförmi g refittin
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ENGLISH : GREEK translated by A. Mo
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epiklinήV (epexergasίa) : low ang
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punch : punzone punctiform : puntif
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ENGLISH : PORTUGUESE translated by
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face : fac e faceta: buri n face t
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pressure platform : plano de presi
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