Technology and Terminology of Knapped Stone - IRIT

These seven characteristics, as well as the possible combinations of descriptors (see
p. 87), are necessary to accurately describe a tool, but their appreciation remains very personal.
All the terms are defined in the lexicon.
Orientation o f tool s
The retouch that characterizes some tools plays an important part in their orientation, but
once again no logical or fixed rules have yet been established.
The position of the piece while being drawn or examined varies according to the different
authors, as do descriptions of tools, which begin either with the retouch or the blank, sometimes
even alternating the two.
Nevertheless, for the reproduction of a tool to be more conveniently interpreted and
understood, it is necessary to adopt a certain number of symbols, and to define them clearly when
they are not in current use (ch. 7, fig. 53).
Special techniques and their product s
Some special debitage techniques and methods, such as the manufacture of crested
blades (fig. 68) and the rejuvenation of striking or pressure platforms (fig. 77), leave characteristic
and easily recognizable waste products. In a similar way, some retouching techniques
(lato sensu) leave such characteristic negative marks, and corresponding waste products, that they
deserve a special, separate place in stone-working technology.
Some retouch flakes have specific morphologies, which are in themselves sufficient to
characterize the technique used. For instance, it is quite easy to recognize flakes resulting from
"Quina" retouch : they are fan-shaped, with a hinged distal end (fig. 34 : 5 and 6).
A number of special techniques were used in tool making, and they sometimes mark the
ultimate stage of manufacture. They are also sometimes difficult to distinguish from knapping
accidents. Note the case of intentional fractures caused by flexion or any other process : the
fractured element can be used directly, or transformed by retouch.
Our aim is not to establish an exhaustive explanatory list of such techniques, but to
highlight their importance by illustrating a few examples. As waste products are still thought of
as the "poor relatives" of lithic assemblages, it is certain that a good number of special techniques
are still undiscovered...
This is not the case for the famous microburin, known since 1875 79
, and about which
thousands of pages have been written.
1. Microburin blow techniqu e
This special technique is very widespread in the Old World, but has not yet been
documented in the New World. Although it was used for making various types of tools (see
below), it is primarily associated with the manufacture of geometrical microliths : mainly
triangles and trapezes, but also crescents. Any prehistorian confronted with such shapes should
therefore keep an even sharper lookout for microburins among the knapping products.
The purpose of the microburin blow (a technique that was perhaps born from the
repetition of a common knapping accident occurring during the manufacture of artefacts with
m
backed edges), is to achieve a technical morphology known as a "piquant-triedre" .
A flake, blade or bladelet is placed on an anvil with an open dihedral angle (e.g. a flake
with a triangular cross-section lying on its lower face, a block of stone, a wooden board), its
upper face in contact with the ridge of the dihedral angle so that the axis of the blade or bladelet
79 Chierici, 1875.
80 Gobert, 1955.
82