Knapping

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Flintknapping a stone tool Flint-knapping Demonstration (27349458154).jpg
Flintknapping a stone tool

Knapping is the shaping of flint, chert, obsidian, or other conchoidal fracturing stone through the process of lithic reduction to manufacture stone tools, strikers for flintlock firearms, or to produce flat-faced stones for building or facing walls, and flushwork decoration. The original Germanic term knopp meant to strike, shape, or work, so it could theoretically have referred equally well to making statues or dice. Modern usage is more specific, referring almost exclusively to the hand-tool pressure-flaking process pictured. It is distinguished from the more general verb "chip" (to break up into small pieces, or unintentionally break off a piece of something) and is different from "carve" (removing only part of a face), and "cleave" (breaking along a natural plane).

Contents

Method

A leather leg guard protects the knapper from being injured by the edges of the flint. Knapping.JPG
A leather leg guard protects the knapper from being injured by the edges of the flint.

Flintknapping or knapping is done in a variety of ways depending on the purpose of the final product. For stone tools and flintlock strikers, chert is worked using a fabricator such as a hammerstone to remove lithic flakes from a nucleus or core of tool stone. Stone tools can then be further refined using wood, bone, and antler tools to perform pressure flaking.

For building work a hammer or pick is used to split chert nodules supported on the lap. Often the chert nodule will be split in half to create two cherts with a flat circular face for use in walls constructed of lime. More sophisticated knapping is employed to produce near-perfect cubes which are used as bricks.

Tools

There are many different methods of shaping stone into useful tools. Early knappers could have used simple hammers made of wood or antler to shape stone tools. The factors that contribute to the knapping results are varied, but the EPA (exterior platform angle) indeed influences many attributes, such as length, thickness and termination of flakes. [1]

Hard hammer techniques are used to remove large flakes of stone. Early knappers and hobbyists replicating their methods often use cobbles of very hard stone, such as quartzite. This technique can be used by flintknappers to remove broad flakes that can be made into smaller tools. This method of manufacture is believed to have been used to make some of the earliest stone tools ever found, some of which date from over 2 million years ago.

Soft hammer knapping Soft Hammer.jpg
Soft hammer knapping

Soft hammer techniques are more precise than hard hammer methods of shaping stone. Soft hammer techniques allow a knapper to shape a stone into many different kinds of cutting, scraping, and projectile tools. These "soft hammer" techniques also produce longer, thinner flakes, potentially allowing for material conservation or a lighter lithic tool kit to be carried by mobile societies. [2]

Pressure flaking involves removing narrow flakes along the edge of a stone tool. This technique is often used to do detailed thinning and shaping of a stone tool. Pressure flaking involves putting a large amount of force across a region on the edge of the tool and (when successful) causing a narrow flake to come off of the stone. Modern hobbyists often use pressure flaking tools with a copper or brass tip, but early knappers could have used antler tines or a pointed wooden punch; traditionalist knappers still use antler tines and copper-tipped tools. The major advantage of using soft metals rather than wood or bone is that the metal punches wear down less and are less likely to break under pressure.

Uses

Aztec stone knives Aztec sacrificial knives.jpg
Aztec stone knives
A gun-flint mounted in the jaws of a flintlock musket Steinschloss.jpg
A gun-flint mounted in the jaws of a flintlock musket
Knapped flint walls and flushwork at the church of Stratford St. Mary Stratford St Mary church April 2005.JPG
Knapped flint walls and flushwork at the church of Stratford St. Mary

In cultures that have not adopted metalworking technologies, the production of stone tools by knappers is common, but in modern cultures the making of such tools is the domain of experimental archaeologists and hobbyists. Archaeologists usually undertake the task so that they can better understand how prehistoric stone tools were made.

Knapping is often learned by outdoor enthusiasts.

Knapping gun flints, used by flintlock firearms was formerly a major industry in flint-bearing locations, such as Brandon in Suffolk, England, and the small towns of Meusnes and Couffy in France. [3] Meusnes has a small museum dedicated to the industry.

In 1804, during the Napoleonic Wars, Brandon was supplying over 400,000 flints a month for use by the British Army and Navy. [4] Brandon knappers made gun flints for export to Africa as late as the 1960s.

Knapping for building purposes is still a skill that is practiced in the flint-bearing regions of southern England, such as Sussex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, and in northern France, especially Brittany and Normandy, where there is a resurgence of the craft due to government funding. [5]

Health hazards

Historically, flint knappers commonly suffered from silicosis, due to the inhalation of flint dust. This has been called "the world's first industrial disease". [3] [6]

When gun flint knapping was a large-scale industry in Brandon, Suffolk, silicosis was widely known as knappers' rot. [7] It has been claimed silicosis was responsible for the early death of three-quarters of Brandon gun flint makers. In one workshop, seven of the eight workers died of the condition before the age of fifty. [3]

Modern knappers are advised to work in the open air to reduce the dust hazard, and to wear eye and hand protection. [3] Some modern knappers wear a respirator to guard against dust. [6]

Contemporary study

French prehistorian Jacques Tixier offers modern training in stone knapping. Ensenando a tallar.jpg
French prehistorian Jacques Tixier offers modern training in stone knapping.

Modern American interest in knapping can be traced back [8] to the study of a California Native American called Ishi who lived in the early twentieth century. Ishi taught scholars and academics traditional methods of making stone tools and how to use them for survival in the wild. Early European explorers to the New world were also exposed to flint knapping techniques. Additionally, several pioneering nineteenth-century European experimental knappers are also known and in the late 1960s and early 1970s experimental archaeologist Don Crabtree published texts such as Experiments in Flintworking. François Bordes was an early writer on Old World knapping; he experimented with ways to replicate stone tools found across Western Europe. These authors helped to ignite a small craze in knapping among archaeologists and prehistorians.

English archaeologist Phil Harding is another contemporary expert, whose exposure on the television series Time Team has led to him being a familiar figure in the UK and beyond. Many groups, with members from all walks of life, can now be found across the United States and Europe. These organizations continue to demonstrate and teach various ways of shaping stone tools.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flint</span> Cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz

Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start fires.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hammerstone</span> Prehistoric stone tool

In archaeology, a hammerstone is a hard cobble used to strike off lithic flakes from a lump of tool stone during the process of lithic reduction. The hammerstone is a rather universal stone tool which appeared early in most regions of the world including Europe, India and North America. This technology was of major importance to prehistoric cultures before the age of metalworking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lithic reduction</span> Process of fashioning stones or rocks into tools and weapons

In archaeology, in particular of the Stone Age, lithic reduction is the process of fashioning stones or rocks from their natural state into tools or weapons by removing some parts. It has been intensely studied and many archaeological industries are identified almost entirely by the lithic analysis of the precise style of their tools and the chaîne opératoire of the reduction techniques they used.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lithic flake</span> Portion of rock removed from an objective piece by percussion or pressure

In archaeology, a lithic flake is a "portion of rock removed from an objective piece by percussion or pressure," and may also be referred to as simply a flake, or collectively as debitage. The objective piece, or the rock being reduced by the removal of flakes, is known as a core. Once the proper tool stone has been selected, a percussor or pressure flaker is used to direct a sharp blow, or apply sufficient force, respectively, to the surface of the stone, often on the edge of the piece. The energy of this blow propagates through the material, often producing a Hertzian cone of force which causes the rock to fracture in a controllable fashion. Since cores are often struck on an edge with a suitable angle (<90°) for flake propagation, the result is that only a portion of the Hertzian cone is created. The process continues as the flintknapper detaches the desired number of flakes from the core, which is marked with the negative scars of these removals. The surface area of the core which received the blows necessary for detaching the flakes is referred to as the striking platform.

In lithic analysis, a subdivision of archaeology, a bulb of applied force is a defining characteristic of a lithic flake. Bulb of applied force was first correctly described by Sir John Evans, the cofounder of prehistoric archeology. However, bulb of percussion was coined scientifically by W.J. Sollas. When a flake is detached from its parent core, a portion of the Hertzian cone of force caused by the detachment blow is detached with it, leaving a distinctive bulb on the flake and a corresponding flake scar on the core. In the case of a unidirectional core, the bulb of applied force is produced by an initiated crack formed at the point of contact, which begins producing the Hertzian cone. The outward pressure increases causing the crack to curve away from the core and the bulb formation. The bulb of applied force forms below the striking platform as a slight bulge. If the flake is completely crushed the bulb will not be visible. Bulbs of applied force may be distinctive, moderate, or diffuse, depending upon the force of the blow used to detach the flake, and upon the type of material used as a fabricator. The bulb of applied force can indicate the mass or density of the tool used in the application of the force. The bulb may also be an indication of the angle of the force. This information is helpful to archaeologists in understanding and recreating the process of flintknapping. Generally, the harder the material used as a fabricator, the more distinctive the bulb of applied force. Soft hammer percussion has a low diffuse bulb while hard hammer percussion usually leaves a more distinct and noticeable bulb of applied force. Pressure flake also allowed for diffuse bulbs. The bulb of percussion of a flake or blade is convex and the core has a corresponding concave bulb. The concave bulb on the core is known as the negative bulb of percussion. Bulbs of applied force are not usually present if the flake has been struck off naturally. This allows archaeologists to identify and distinguish natural breakage from human artistry. The three main bulb types are flat or nondescript, normal, and pronounced. A flat or nondescript bulb is poorly defined and does not rise up on the ventral surface. A normal bulb on the ventral side has average height and well-defined. A pronounced bulb rises up on ventral side and is very large.

A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric cultures that have become extinct. Archaeologists often study such prehistoric societies, and refer to the study of stone tools as lithic analysis. Ethnoarchaeology has been a valuable research field in order to further the understanding and cultural implications of stone tool use and manufacture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Projectile point</span> Primitive weapon component

In archaeological terminology, a projectile point is an object that was hafted to a weapon that was capable of being thrown or projected, such as a javelin, dart, or arrow. They are thus different from weapons presumed to have been kept in the hand, such as knives, spears, axes, hammers, and maces.

In archaeology, lithic analysis is the analysis of stone tools and other chipped stone artifacts using basic scientific techniques. At its most basic level, lithic analyses involve an analysis of the artifact's morphology, the measurement of various physical attributes, and examining other visible features.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hand axe</span> Stone tool

A hand axe is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history. It is made from stone, usually flint or chert that has been "reduced" and shaped from a larger piece by knapping, or hitting against another stone. They are characteristic of the lower Acheulean and middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) periods, roughly 1.6 million years ago to about 100,000 years ago, and used by Homo erectus and other early humans, but rarely by Homo sapiens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flintlock mechanism</span> Ignition system for early firearms

The flintlock mechanism is a type of lock used on muskets, rifles, and pistols from the early 17th to the mid-19th century. It is commonly referred to as a "flintlock". The term is also used for the weapons themselves as a whole, and not just the lock mechanism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blade (archaeology)</span> Type of stone tool

In archaeology, a blade is a type of stone tool created by striking a long narrow flake from a stone core. This process of reducing the stone and producing the blades is called lithic reduction. Archaeologists use this process of flintknapping to analyze blades and observe their technological uses for historical purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levallois technique</span> Distinctive type of stone knapping technique used by ancient humans

The Levallois technique is a name given by archaeologists to a distinctive type of stone knapping developed around 250,000 to 300,000 years ago during the Middle Palaeolithic period. It is part of the Mousterian stone tool industry, and was used by the Neanderthals in Europe and by modern humans in other regions such as the Levant.

Don E. Crabtree was an American flintknapper and pioneering experimental archaeologist.

In archaeology, lithic technology includes a broad array of techniques used to produce usable tools from various types of stone. The earliest stone tools to date have been found at the site of Lomekwi 3 (LOM3) in Kenya and they have been dated to around 3.3 million years ago. The archaeological record of lithic technology is divided into three major time periods: the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic. Not all cultures in all parts of the world exhibit the same pattern of lithic technological development, and stone tool technology continues to be used to this day, but these three time periods represent the span of the archaeological record when lithic technology was paramount. By analysing modern stone tool usage within an ethnoarchaeological context, insight into the breadth of factors influencing lithic technologies in general may be studied. See: Stone tool. For example, for the Gamo of Southern Ethiopia, political, environmental, and social factors influence the patterns of technology variation in different subgroups of the Gamo culture; through understanding the relationship between these different factors in a modern context, archaeologists can better understand the ways that these factors could have shaped the technological variation that is present in the archaeological record.

In archaeology, a tranchet flake is a characteristic type of flake removed by a flintknapper during lithic reduction. Known as one of the major categories in core-trimming flakes, the making of a tranchet flake involves removing a flake parallel to the final intended cutting edge of the tool which creates a single straight edge as wide as the tool itself. A large flint artifact with a chisel-end, the tranchet flake has a cutting edge that is sharp and straight. The cutting edge is unmodified in most cases; sometimes, it is polished for increased durability and/or sharpness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flake tool</span> Type of stone tool

In archaeology, a flake tool is a type of stone tool that was used during the Stone Age that was created by striking a flake from a prepared stone core. People during prehistoric times often preferred these flake tools as compared to other tools because these tools were often easily made, could be made to be extremely sharp & could easily be repaired. Flake tools could be sharpened by retouch to create scrapers or burins. These tools were either made by flaking off small particles of flint or by breaking off a large piece and using that as a tool itself. These tools were able to be made by this "chipping" away effect due to the natural characteristic of stone. Stone is able to break apart when struck near the edge. Flake tools are created through flint knapping, a process of producing stone tools using lithic reduction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debitage</span> Archeological term; material produced during the process of lithic reduction

In archaeology, debitage is all the material produced during the process of lithic reduction – the production of stone tools and weapons by knapping stone. This assemblage may include the different kinds of lithic flakes and lithic blades, but most often refers to the shatter and production debris, and production rejects.

Errett Callahan was an American archaeologist, flintknapper, and pioneer in the fields of experimental archaeology and lithic replication studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buttermilk Creek complex</span> Early archaeological site in Texas, United States

The Buttermilk Creek complex is the remains of a paleolithic settlement along the shores of Buttermilk Creek in present-day Salado, Texas. The assemblage dates to ~13.2 to 15.5 thousand years old. If confirmed, the site represents evidence of human settlement in the Americas that pre-dates the Clovis culture.

John Charles Whittaker is an American archaeologist and professor at Grinnell College. Whittaker's research focuses on prehistoric technology and experimental archaeology, specializing particularly in stone tools and atlatls. He has also worked in natural history and ecology, zooarchaeology, and paleoethnobotany.

References

  1. Dibble, Harold; Whittaker, John (1981). "New Experimental Evidence on the Relation Between Percussion Flaking and Flake Variation". Journal of Archaeological Science. 8 (3): 283–296. doi:10.1016/0305-4403(81)90004-2.
  2. Peclin, Andrew (1997). "The Effect of Indentor Type on Flake Attributes: Evidence from a Controlled Experiment". Journal of Archaeological Science. 24 (7): 613–621. doi: 10.1006/jasc.1996.0145 .
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Basic Tool Production Techniques, Health and Safety". ancientcrafts.co.uk. Archived from the original on 14 September 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  4. Whittaker, John (2001). "The Oldest British Industry: continuity and obsolescence in a flintknapper's sample set" (PDF). Antiquity. 75 (288): 382–90. doi:10.1017/s0003598x00061032. S2CID   163235035. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-04-28. Retrieved 2015-08-18.
  5. "Architectural flintwork".
  6. 1 2 Kalin, Jeffery (2010). "Flintknapping and Silicosis". Pudget Sound Knappers. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  7. Batty Shaw, A (1981). "Knapper's Rot, Silicosis in East Anglian Flint Knappers". Medical History. 25 (2): 151–168. doi:10.1017/s0025727300034359. PMC   1139012 . PMID   7012479.
  8. Whittaker 1994:56-58

Further reading