ANTH 9 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Fracture Mechanics, Lithic Reduction, Cryptocrystalline

• School: Irvine Valley College
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 9
• Professor: Grimm

Document Summary

Stone tools are the earliest and most enduring human artifacts. Earliest worked pieces of stone have been found in east africa dating to 2. 6 mya. Most common materials = form of cryptocrystalline quartz including basalt, obsidian, jasper, quartzite, chert/flint. Fracture mechanics used to describe how materials break. Striking platform = place where force was applied to remove the flake. Dorsal surface = outer surface of the flake. Bulbar, or ventral, surface = inner, fresh surface of the flake itself. Percussion = technique of striking stone to remove a flake. Pressure flaking = term used to describe removals made by pressing a point into the edge of a core. Percussion can be done using a hard hammer, hammer and anvil, or soft hammer. Debitage = waste produced when making stone tools. Retouching = technique for further shaping flakes, blades, and other pieces into specific forms.