Technology and Terminology of Knapped Stone - IRIT

- values of half-light, or parts still directly lit, but with less intensity;
- values of shade, or parts that light does not touch directly;
- values of reflection, or parts left in shadow but nevertheless indirectly brushed by a
small amount of light.
Pen and ink drawing should respect these values.
4.3. Pen an d in k drawin g
This is the final stage in the illustration of an artefact (fig. 45 : 3). Downstrokes of
consistent thickness are used for the outlines and arrises. Some illustrators use a varying
thickness of line for the arrises (broader in zones of shade) to create an impression of relief.
However, this technique is advised against because the broadened line tends to be less precise
and the general outlines will lack accuracy.
Borrowing from engraving techniques, the first lithic illustrators devised a graphical
method that was adapted to prehistoric industries and rendered the three-dimensional aspect of
the object, the nature of the material and the sequence of knapping events. Engravers use hatching
to express volume; their parallel lines are rectilinear and of consistent thickness. The tone values
of grey are rendered by more or less complex cross-hatching forming a lattice pattern. Where
lithic technology is concerned, hatching fulfills a double purpose. The lines, similar to hachures,
are used as a means of expressing relief and of showing in a highly stylized way how the object
was made. For this reason they are known as direction lines. Imitating ripples, the direction lines
represent the shock wave in the stone, which caused the removal of the flake. They originate at
the impact point, from which they spread out concentrically. Fully rounded when they are close
to the impact point, the direction lines straighten out as the distance from the impact point
increases, without ever becoming rectilinear. This process highlights the negative bulbs and
shows on a single drawing the entire chronological sequence of flake removals.
The direction lines are drawn using downstrokes and upstrokes. The line tapers to a
point: the head of the line is thickish while the tail is very fine. This can only be achieved with
a split-ni b pen. The pressure of the hand bears on the nib, widening or narrowing the split to
adjust the thickness of the line. The direction lines should all be parallel.
Based on the relief rendered on the finished pencil drawing, the values of shade and light
are expressed by varying several parameters (fig. 47), the length of the direction lines, their
thickness and their frequency :
- in zones of light the lines are few in number, fine and short; they cover about a third
of the surface of each removal negative;
- in zones of half-light the lines are fairly numerous, thick and of middling length; they
cover about half the surface of each removal negative;
- in zones of shade the lines are very numerous, very thick and long; they cover about
two-thirds of the surface of each removal negative;
- in zones of reflection the lines are abruptly interrupted to express a zone of light within
a zone of shade.
5. Materials and surface s
5.1. Raw material s
The fundamentals of lithic illustration were established on the basis of flint artefacts.
The conventional method of representing flint in a stylized way uses downstroke and
upstroke direction lines. What about other flaked stones, which do not have the same texture as
flint? They should be differenciated (fig. 48). However "while it is highly advisable to portray
the grain of the stone, this should never be done at the expense of an accurate technological
representation" 111
. The same principle of direction lines is followed, but the character of the lines
and the background of the drawing are made to vary according to the textures of the different
materials. Several different treatments are proposed hereafter.
111 "... il est bien entendu que, s'il est hautement souhaitable que le grain de la roche soit exprimé avec soin, jamais
la réalité technologique ne doit en souffrir". Dauvois, 1976 : 52.
114