Technology and Terminology of Knapped Stone - IRIT

Fig. 31 — Pressure debitage of blades (or bladelets), different types of cores. 1 : pyramidal core. 2 :
bullet core. 3 : flat core. 4 : flat core with two successive debitage surfaces.
precision and maximum standardization, thanks to parallel arrises. It is also a much more
profitable technique than percussion debitage; it actually allows an "ideal" blade debitage,
removing two arrises from the core while creating two more.
More than any other debitage technique, pressure-flaking gave rise to feats of imagination,
reflected in the various ways of shaping out different sized cores, in the rubbing down of
pressure platforms when obsidian is used, and in the polishing of some parts of the core during
debitage to smooth out irregularities 76
(fig. 78).
Because pressure-flaking is a technique that allows the core to be worked until it is spent
(as the large number of documented bullet cores shows), plunging is a common accident. It is
therefore unthinkable and illogical to pressure-flake from two opposite pressure platforms.
Recognition criteria 77
On the core
Very rectilinear and regularly parallel arrises help to distinguish a pressure-flaked core
from a percussion-flaked core, while the morphology itself can be variable (fig. 31).
76 Inizan, Tixier, 1983.
77 J. Tixier's first assessment of the recognition criteria of this technique was based on the Upper Capsian lithic
industry of the Ain Dokkara (Tixier, 1976a).
78
A