Technology and Terminology of Knapped Stone - IRIT

- or from a cobble, a slab, a core, etc., and
if need be fashioned into a tool at a later
stage (knappin g flake, debitag e flake),
- or from a tool during manufacture (retouch
flake, shapin g flake).
The use of the word "flake" does not imply
a particular morphology, a specific use, or
particular dimensions (fig. 5).
FLAKED SURFACES . Fracture planes or surfaces
formed by the removal of debitage
products from cores. Flaked surfaces (or
debitage surfaces) therefore consist of removal
negatives bounded by arrises
(fig. 20).
FLAKING ANGLE . The angle formed by the
butt and the lower (ventral) fac e (fig. 5), as
well as measurements taken of it. The
examination of its morphology (presence of
an incipient cone, or of a lip, etc.) will
provide information about debitage techniques.
FLAT (PLAIN ). A descriptive term particularly
applied to butts (fig. 62 : 2).
FLUTED. A term that applies to pressureflaked
cores (fig. 31). The parallelism and
the regularity of the arrises are evocative of
the fluting of a Doric column 137
. Fluted is
also used as a synonym of channel-flake d
in the case of Paleoindian projectile points.
FRACTURE. To divide into parts. Rocks can
be caused to fracture by natural agencies
(frost, surf, exposure to fire, etc.). The
expression "intentional fracture" is used
when it can be established that a break is
not accidental, and refers to all known and
unknown methods of dividing a piece of
raw material into parts (see knapping) ,
such as percussion, pressure, bending,
sawing, the use of fire, etc.
FRACTURE FRONT . The fracture of raw
materials obeys physical laws pertaining to
solid objects. This implies the development
of a crack, or fracture front, initiating from
an impact point. Its importance for prehistorians
lies in the characteristic marks (rip -
ples, hackles ) left on the lower face of a
flake or on a negative of removal.
137 Tixier, 1963 : 43.
142
FRAGMENT. A piece broken off or
detached. A fragment is identifiable, and
can be assigned to a category of objects.
The term should therefore not be used on
its own, but qualified: blade fragment,
flake fragment, handaxe fragment, tool
fragment, etc. As debitage is the intentional
fracture of a block of raw material (which
becomes a core), any flake is a "core
fragment". This last expression should
therefore only be used in the case of a core
broken by natural causes (internal joints,
frost, fire, etc.).
G
GLOSS. A shiny surface condition. Gloss
can have a natural origin (water, wind,
friction due to vibration, etc.), or be artificial
and due to wear, the best known
example being the gloss on stone sickleblades.
H
HACKLE. A fracture mark, which develops
perpendicular to a fracture front , and therefore
spreads radially from the impact point,
during the separation of a flake (fig. 5).
These marks are caused by the partial detachment
of very small pieces of material.
"Although quite narrow, they are wider at
their starting points than at their extremi­
1 3 8
ties" . They are of variable dimensions,
and are visible in negative (on cores, for
instance) as well as in positive on the lower
face of the flake. Hackles always converge
on the impact point, thus allowing the identification
of the direction of debitage in the
absence of ripples and when the extremities
are missing.
HAMMER. A natural implement used for
knapping, shaping, or retouching hard
stone. Hammers can be cobbles or lumps of
stone, pieces of wood, antler, bone, ivory,
etc (fig. 72). Convention has fixed the
expressions "hammerstone" (or "hard
hammer") for natural mineral hammers,
and "soft hammer" for hammers of
biological origin. Furthermore, some
knapped objects, including discarded cores,
were sometimes used as hammers.