Technology and Terminology of Knapped Stone - IRIT

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Chapter 3 Shaping We use the term shaping to indicate a sequence of knapping operations carried out for the purpose of manufacturing a single artefact by sculpting the raw material in accordance with the desired form. This particular knapping mode, which can be fitted into any of the phases of a chaîne opératoire, aims at creating a specific morphology, whether it be an arrowhead (whose function can be presumed), a handaxe (the use of which remains unknown), or the preform of a stone axe that will subsequently be polished. Although shaping applies mainly to bifacial pieces, it can concern other artefacts of varied morphology, such as polyhedrons and spheroids, trihedrons, chisels, stone axes with square cross-sections, etc. Shaping also applies to the manufacture of preforms. However, when an operation akin to shaping is shown to belong really to a chaîne opératoire concerned with debitage, one speaks of a core being shaped out because the underlying concept is different. A case in point is the Japanese Yubetsu method for the production of bladelets (p. 79). With shaping, it is not always possible to say what was actually intented : the fashioning of a single tool or the production of blanks. Most chaînes opératoires concerned with shaping produce quite a number of flakes that can be used as blanks for flake tools. It is also often impossible to ascribe utilitarian properties to the artefacts resulting from shaping. Shaping is a mode of knapping that is very widespread, in both time and space, and has been applied to almost all the types of raw material suitable for knapping, from coarse-grained quartzite to obsidian. Finally, shaping encompasses a certain number of methods, each of which shows many variations. The following developments concern only some of the major methods : bifacial shaping, polyhedral and spheroidal shaping, trihedral and quadrangular shaping. Preforms, by definition an intermediate stage in a chaîne opératoire and not associated with any particular morphology, are dealt with in a separate section, as well as cleavers, a very special type of tool. 43
Bifacial shapin g Bifacial shaping appeared in eastern Africa at the end of the Oldowan period, more than one and a half million years ago, and has virtually always been used ever since. The handaxe is an all-important feature of the Lower Palaeolithic. Although not omnipresent, it is - sometimes along with the cleaver - the best represented tool in Acheulean industries. It remains conspicuously present during the Middle Palaeolithic. In later periods, bifacial shaping appears or disappears depending on the culture. In the French Upper Palaeolithic, for instance, it reaches its apogee with the Solutrean, but is not taken up later by the Magdalenians. On the other hand, in other cultural contexts, such as Asia, bifacial shaping features in the technical background during the entire Upper Palaeolithic. As from the end of the Mesolithic and until metal appears, it becomes virtually universal owing to the development of projectile points. 1. Methods Although the methods used for bifacial shaping vary considerably according to the different periods, the basic concept stays much the same. Differences appear only within the operative schemes, the techniques and the way in which they are applied. The bifacial concept is described here from a general point of view. Whichever way the original blank was obtained (it can, for instance be a large flake struck off from a core), bifacial shaping can be divided into two phases, roughing out and finishing. • Roughing out consists in the simultaneous fashioning of two more or less convex 43 surfaces on either side of a bifacial equilibrium plane (fig. 11 : A). This term is used in preference to plane of symmetry because the two surfaces - which define a contour, marked out by a ridge - are definitely not always symmetrical, and this applies in particular to handaxes. • Finishing consists in giving the contour a regular shape, according to a second bilateral equilibrium plane (fig. 11 : B), perpendicular to the bifacial equilibrium plane. Finishing bears some similarity to retouching, especially where small pieces made from flakes are concerned. It is this step that gives the artefact its final morphology, by delineating the edges, carving out a tang, or arrowhead wings, etc. Any blank can be shaped into a bifacial piece : a cobble, a block, a slab, a chunk of stone, and of course a flake (fig. 8). The closer the morphology of the blank is to the intended final shape, the less work is required to rough it out. In the case of a bifacial piece made from a thick block, it is necessary to do some preliminary flaking before roughing out can be undertaken : this entails flaking away the cortex and coming closer to the desired morphology. On the other hand, one or two generations of removals only are needed to shape a bifacial piece made from a flake. Some Acheuleans have systematically struck off large, short and wide slightly déjeté flakes, to use as blanks for their handaxes : in that case, shaping is incorporated into a longer chaîne opératoire, which includes an initial flaking sequence that shows predetermination in the obtaining of blanks 44 . 2. Technique s Prehistoric people applied the main stone-knapping techniques to bifacial flaking as they successively invented or adopted them : direct percussion with a hard or soft hammer, indirect percussion, pressure, pecking, and then polishing. As early as the middle Pleistocene, different techniques were brought into play for the fashioning of a single bifacial artefact : direct percussion with a stone hammer to first remove the blank and then rough it out, direct percussion with a soft hammer to give the piece its final shape. These two operations generate characteristic flakes (fig. 14). The shift from one technique 43 Texier, 1989; Roche, Texier, 1991. 44 Texier, Roche, 1995b. 44
Page 1 and 2: Technology and Terminology of Knapp
Page 3 and 4: In the same collection Préhistoire
Page 5 and 6: Authors Marie-Louise Inizan*, Mich
Page 7 and 8: Chapter 4 : Debitage 59 The core De
Page 9 and 10: List o f illustration s Fig. 1 Raw
Page 12: Foreword Many students and research
Page 15 and 16: Why? Technology has its place withi
Page 17 and 18: In blade debitage 17 , for instance
Page 20 and 21: Chapter 1 Raw material s Knapped ha
Page 22 and 23: 2. Knappin g suitability o f hard r
Page 24 and 25: • A single block of raw material
Page 26 and 27: Raw material procuremen t strategie
Page 28: unmodified block roughed ou t or pr
Page 31 and 32: Knapping, shaping, flaking, retouch
Page 33 and 34: could not be reached with such othe
Page 35 and 36: ipples, hackles (see p. 142). Parad
Page 37 and 38: • Languette 31 breaks occurring o
Page 39 and 40: - distinguish intentional from unin
Page 41 and 42: Fig. 9 — Blade debitage carried o
Page 46 and 47: to another in the course of roughin
Page 48 and 49: 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
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hammer, the stability of the core o
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Only the major milestones in the co
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Chapter 7 0 I ~"~2 3 4 o Graphic re
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103 Fig. 37 — Acheulean handaxe,
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Fig. 39 — Pressure-flaked bladele
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Fig. 41 — Examples of orientation
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1 I Fig. 43 — Two layouts of view
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4. Graphi c desig n an d techniqu e
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Fig. 46 — Tracing the outline and
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Fig. 47 — Uncompleted laurel leaf
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Fig. 48 — Graphical treatment of
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Fig. 50 — Large convex Mousterian
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6. Symbol s Although multiple views
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Clean breaks are indicated by two s
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Fig. 54 — Schematic representatio
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indicated by numbered arrows. The p
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ANVIL. A block of relatively hard s
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produced at the very moment the fla
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Fig. 60 — Inclination of a burin
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Fig. 62 — Various types of butts.
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If the morphology of the raw materi
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7 8 9 11 1 2 13 1 4 1 5 Fig. 65 —
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- or from a cobble, a slab, a core,
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INVERSE. A term defining a position
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distinguish the types of certain to
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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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Technology and Terminology of Knapped Stone - IRIT

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