Debitage refers to the flakes and other material removed during the course of reducing larger stones into finished tools. Together, cores and debitage can tell archaeologists a lot about how prehistoric people made their tools.
What is debitage analysis?
Debitage analysis-the systematic study of chipped stone artifacts that are not cores or tools- provides important information for reconstructing prehistoric lithic technology and patterns of. human behavior (Fish 1981:374).
Is debitage an artifact?
Debitage, the by-product flakes and chips from stone tool production, is the most abundant artifact type in prehistoric archaeological sites.
What is an analysis of debitage most likely to indicate?
Debitage analysis. Debitage analysis, a sub-field of lithic analysis, considers the entire lithic waste assemblage. The analysis is undertaken by investigating differing patterns of debris morphology, size, and shape, among other things.
What is the difference between a flake and a Biface?
Biface. Bifaces are blanks that exhibit flake-removal scars on both surfaces. These artifacts are usually irregular in outline and vary in thickness and size. Many artifacts classified as bifaces are probably tools that broke during manufacture, or bifaces that could not be thinned and were discarded.
What is an example of an Ecofact?
More generally taken as material recovered from archaeological sites, or other sealed deposits, which is relevant to the study of ancient environments and ecology. Examples include animal bones, seeds, snail shells, waterlogged wood, and pollen.
What is the meaning of hammerstone?
: a prehistoric hammering implement consisting of a rounded stone.
Which definition most appropriately defines Ooliths?
Freebase. Oolite. Oolite is a sedimentary rock formed from ooids, spherical grains composed of concentric layers. The name derives from the Hellenic word òoion for egg. Strictly, oolites consist of ooids of diameter 0.25–2 mm; rocks composed of ooids larger than 2 mm are called pisolites.
What are Lithics used for?
Making chipped stone tools by hitting one rock with another in a controlled manner is called flintknapping. A hammerstone is used for the early stages of work, an antler for the later stages of shaping the final tool.
What is a flake in Archaeology?
Researchers and craftspeople often use the term “flintknapping” to describe the making of flaked stone tools. The flake is the most basic element in flintknapping, and a flake is struck from a rock called a core. A flake generally has very sharp edges, making it useful for cutting, scraping, and carving.
Levallois Levallois, or more precisely the Levallois prepared-core technique, is the name archaeologists have given to a distinctive style of flint knapping, which makes up part of the Middle Paleolithic Acheulean and Mousterian artifact assemblages.
Are bones considered artifacts?
What is an Artifact? Artifacts are objects that are made or used by humans. Some uncommon artifacts include bone tools, wood and fabric.
What is hammerstone used for?
noun Archaeology. an ancient stone tool used as a hammer, as for chipping flint, processing food, or breaking up bones.
What are ooids made of?
Oolite is a type of sedimentary rock, usually limestone, made up of ooids cemented together. An ooid is a small spherical grain that forms when a particle of sand or other nucleus is coated with concentric layers of calcite or other minerals. Ooids most often form in shallow, wave-agitated marine water.
Micrite is a limestone constituent formed of calcareous particles ranging in diameter up to four μm formed by the recrystallization of lime mud. Micrite is lime mud, carbonate of mud grade. Micrite can be generated by chemical precipitation, from disaggregation of peloids, or by micritization.
What is meant by primary and secondary flaking?
Primary flakes are those whose dorsal surfaces are entirely covered with cortex; secondary flakes have at least a trace of cortex on the dorsal surface; and tertiary (interior) flakes lack cortex, having derived entirely from the interior of the core.
What do you know about pressure flaking technique?
Pressure flaking, as the name implies, consists of applying pressure by means of a pointed stick or bone near the edge of a flake or blade, to detach small flakes from both sides. This method was used mostly to put the finishing touches on tools… Pressure flaking was the third technique.