Technology and Terminology of Knapped Stone - IRIT

with waste, is now outdated; burins and their spalls form a pair, whose use and purposes can vary
according to the different cultures. However, the principle remains, demonstrated yet again, that
a technique furthers an intention towards various ends.
3. Tranehet blo w techniqu e
On one of the edges of a triangular and elongated axe-shaped bifacial (or bifacially
retouched) piece, a blow is applied close to the edge that acts as the cutting edge. This causes a
removal negative at an acute angle to the face that was struck, thus creating a sharp cutting edge
perpendicular to the axis of the piece (fig. 34 : 1). In some cases, this is a resharpening technique.
An identical technique applied near the point on Acheulean handaxes, either on one face
or alternating on both, has been named the "lateral tranehet blow" (fig. 34 : 2). This technique,
which is a lot more common than one might have thought (10% of the handaxes in the Somme
valley, France 82
) always results in a roughly symmetrical final shape; it therefore represents the
ultimate intention, whether resharpening is involved or not. The resulting waste products have a
characteristic morphology.
4. Clactonia n notc h techniqu e
It is too often forgotten that the simple action of striking a flake quite far from the edge,
on either of the faces, creates a notch that consists of a single removal negative, known as a
Clactonian notch. The resulting characteristic waste products are indicative of the technique
(fig. 34 : 4). Amongst other possibilities, this technique can be used to reshape the transversal
convexity ("cintrage") of the front of a carinated endscraper (fig. 34 : 7).
5. Other technique s
• The "channel-flaking" of some projectile points (fig. 63) or their basal thinning, are
two examples of special techniques, with characteristic waste products, specific to the Americas.
• "Obsidian side-blow blade-flaking" (fig. 34 : 3), a special technique of repeated
Clactonian truncation, is the fracture of a pressure-flaked obsidian blade perpendicularly to its
debitage axis, by a blow usually applied in the middle of its upper face. In the present state of
knowledge, such a technique is the signature of cultural traditions with a limited existence in both
time and space (pre-pottery Neolithic of northern Mesopotamia).
82 Zuatey Zuber, 1972.
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