Debitage refitting is a process whereby the collected assemblages of debitage are painstakingly put back together, like pieces in a puzzle. This can sometimes indicate the nature of the tools being produced, although missing pieces are a significant problem. More often, debitage refitting is used to learn how rocks were moved during the lithic manufacture process. This can sometimes indicate work areas, division of labor, or trade routes.
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Most of the debitage consists of flakes as a result of being struck by a hard-hammer. Not all of the debitage were complete. A majority of these flakes came from single-platform cores. There are also flakes from opposed-platform and multi-platform cores.
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There is no record of flaked stone tools or debitage being observed on the site since then.
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Lithic manufacture from a quarried source, or from found cobbles also leave different signatures. Some claim that they can determine the sort of tools used to create the debitage. Others feel it is possible to effectively estimate the work-hours represented, or the skill of the workers based on the nature of the debitage. Debitage analysis of biface reduction can be used to determine what stage of reduction is represented in waste. Stahle and Dunn (1982) found that, as waste flake size decrease from initial to final stages in biface production, systematic changes in flake size can be used to identify stages of reduction in anonymous debitage samples through comparison with experimental assemblages.
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Austin also tested how this typology would operate with mixed assemblages. He found that in an assemblage where there is a mixture of debitage from a patterned tool and core reduction, it is likely to be classified as a patterned tool assemblage, if the core debitage represents 50% or less of the total assemblage. Austin pointed out many factors that could change the characteristics of debitage (post-depositional processes, differences in raw material, etc.) and suggested that his method should be used in a preliminary fashion.
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Some debitage material has been examined in an effort to obtain dates. Since debitage is plentiful, and individual specimens are usually not diagnostic, they can often undergo destructive analysis that would not be suitable for other artifacts. Results have been promising, but not spectacular. Obsidian and cryptocrystalline silicates appear to be the most promising materials for destructive analysis.
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A number of sites consist of rock > shelters with petroglyphs, pictographs, and lithic flakes and debitage. Cacaopera - UNESCO World Heritage Centre Retrieved 2009-03-23.
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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. This allows researchers to make more accurate assumptions regarding the purpose of the lithic reduction. Quarrying activities, core reduction, biface creation, tool manufacture, and retooling are believed to leave significantly different debitage assemblages.
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Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association Although this process has been used in many studies, Andrefsky warns of the potential problems associated with the many assumptions made while employing this analysis. One in particular that he draws attention to is the possibility of differences in debitage populations based on individual variation of the artifact maker; in his example, three different knappers all using bipolar core reduction have different percentages of size grade 3 debitage (5.2%, 13.2%, and 10.2%). These differences indicate that individual variation can be influential in the size distribution of debitage and should be kept in mind if mass analysis is being employed.
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It is distinguished by a semi-circular arc of ash, sediment, quartz debitage and animal bone. Barham, Lawrence S. . "The Mumbwa Caves Project, Zambia, 1993-94." Nyame Akume June 1995: 66-72. Print.
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A Mousterian flint assemblage, consisting of 50 handaxes and debitage has been recovered from Great Pan Farm near Newport. Possibly dating to MIS 7 (c.240,000 years ago), these tools are associated with Neanderthal occupation.
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Mass analysis is based on analyzing debitage populations based on their size distribution across specified size grades. Ahler (1989) conducted an experimental replication under some technological settings and classified debitage into five groups according to their size, Discriminant analysis (by SPSS DISCRIMINANT function) was applied to compare mass analysis data sets for these five experimental data groups. He then compared the counts and weights of experimental samples with debris from two prehistoric workshop sites in western North Dakota. The result shows the experimental data sets can explain the technological composition of archaeological samples.
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Chipped-stone debitage contains byproducts of bifacial thinning (soft-hammer percussion), core reduction (hard-hammer percussion), and bipolar (compression) flaking. These include local and non-local materials, which are traced to formations 20 km, 40 km, or further away from the site.
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The others are flake cores. Some of the cores are found with their original debitage. Most core are single- platform which could be because they are less elaborate than multi-platform cores and thus easier to make. Sixteen of the thirty six single-platform cores are made of quartz.
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15 features were reported at the site, of which 14 were prehistoric (the 15th was a modern era pig burial). 12 were designated as “refuse pits” and contained animal bone, stone tools and debitage, pottery sherds and charcoal. There was also one burial and one mussel shell heap.
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The original village housed approximately 150 people. It was more suited to hunting and gathering, than to long-standing agriculture. Archeological evidence includes flint flakes and debitage, along with evidence of semi-permanent settlement, including houses and utilitarian structures. Permanent settlement remains indicate pisé walls and stone foundations.
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The debitage found in all 3 horizons is characteristic of late stage lithic reduction, which shows that the site was used for the same purpose by each set of peoples. However, by analyzing the tool to debitage ratio amongst the 3 assemblages it appears that the Buttermilk Creek Complex peoples were using the site for a greater diversity of tasks than the Folsom and Clovis peoples. One overshot flake and 3 partial overshot flakes found in the Buttermilk Creek Complex suggest the possibility that they were starting to develop the knapping technologies that would be indicative of later Clovis technology. The Clovis and Buttermilk Creek assemblages also show examples of blades and bladelets.
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Oldowan-tradition stone chopper. Mary Leakey classified the Oldowan tools as Heavy Duty, Light Duty, Utilized Pieces and Debitage, or waste.There is a good online summary of Mary's classification on Effland's site for Anthropology ASB22 at Mesa Community College in Arizona, apparently written by Effland. Heavy-duty tools are mainly cores.
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Example of lithic refitting Series of refitted debris Debitage is all the material produced during the process of lithic reduction and the production of chipped stone tools. This assemblage includes, but is not limited to, different kinds of lithic flakes and lithic blades, shatter and production debris, and production rejects.
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Debitage sourcing looks at the physical properties of the worked stone in an attempt to determine where on the earth it was obtained. This may require sophisticated equipment, and destructive testing, but even a visual inspection can provide a general idea. Sourcing is assumed to provide information about trade, or travel routes.
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Use of Weibull distributions and least square analysis helped Stahle and Dunn confirm that this method can be used backward to estimate reduction stages of particular debitage frequencies. Other studies comparing the debitage of bifacial reduction during different stages has not yielded such positive results. Patterson (1990) was unable to distinguish between the stages of initial edging and secondary thinning using statistical analysis of 14 experimental assemblages. The typological approach groups together lithics with similar manufacturing histories in order to emphasize patterns of manufacturing behavior (as in Sheets 1975). To use Sheets’ (1983:200) example, macroblades and prismatic blades were separated on the basis of their manufacture, in that the former was removed by percussion, while the latter was removed by a pressure technique.
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Organic finds in these layers were relatively sparse, including ivory barbed weapon heads, toggling harpoon heads, and fragmentary tool blades. Decorative ivory finds included a doll figure. Stone artifacts were more numerous, with evidence of toolmaking (debitage) as well as projectile heads and stone knives. Pottery was also found, which was largely utilitarian and unornamented.
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The collections from the site were also discussed by Jacques Cauvin. Vast numbers of heavy tools were found representing the industry of the Qaroun culture including piles of debitage and bifaces. Another industry present at the site was tentatively identified as Chalcolithic and included axes, chisels and heavy borers that resembled Minet ed Dhalia points.
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The site was discovered in 2009 and underwent a magnetic survey in 2010. The survey revealed the site's geologic features and accentuated possible areas of burning. One such area, identified as a hearth, yielded potsherds, lithic debitage and animal remnants. Beads from the hearth were carbon dated to the mid-to-late 14th century.
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Bedded between the deposits of at least ten separate major volcanic events dating back to 6500 BCE, are numerous occurrences of evidence of human habitation. The oldest sites found at Brooks River date to c. 3000 BCE. Finds include the remains of pit houses (similar to barabaras), stone tools, projectile points, and evidence of toolmaking (debitage).
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Despite evidence of periodic utilization in the Preceramic (Formative) Period through pollen analysis at nearby Cobweb Swamp and debitage from lithic utilization around the site as far back as the Paleolithic,Shafer, Harry J. and Hester, Thomas J. 1991. Lithic Craft Specialization and Product Distribution at the Maya Site of Colha. World Archaeology. 23(1): 79-97.
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And for the non-metric attributes, platform configuration, platform facet count, % dorsal cortex, dorsal scar count, remained portion, and size grade can be chosen. Bradbury and Carr specifically point to the continuum model to analyze flakes and these listed variables to try to determine which flake debris were caused by different actions (core reduction, tool making, etc.) Sullivan and Rozen (1985) introduced a method of classifying debitage into four categories: complete flakes, broken (proximal) flakes, flake fragments (medial-distal flakes), and fragments that are unable to be oriented. Some success has been shown in using this classification to differentiate between different reduction strategies. Using discriminant analysis and Sullivan and Rozen's system to classify debitage, Austin (1997) was able to correctly distinguish between patterned tool and core reduction techniques for 93.33% of his experimental assemblages.
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Primary flakes are underrepresented which is strange because they are the first step of core flaking. Half of the debitage are flakes that still have part of the cortex. Most of the blades are single- platform core blades with flat butts. The lengths and widths of the flakes were distributed regularly meaning that the production of the flakes reached standardization.
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A third major problem with the chaîne opératoire approach is that there is severe inconsistency in the application of definitions by lithic analysts. For example, since the publication of Boëda's definition of six nondisassociable criteria for Discoidal debitage, numerous variants have been proposed, and many authors have argued for the presence of Levallois concept even when those six criteria were not met.
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The site yielded sufficient material to provide evidence of occupation between the Late Archaic and the Woodland period. It is interpreted as a temporary procurement and processing site. Site 253B is larger, covering , including a midden, fire-cracked rock suggestive of a hearth, and a significant amount of stone toolmaking debitage. 253C is in size, and contained a stylistic diversity of stone points.
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The Organization of Late Classic Lithic Production at The Prehistoric Maya Site of Colha, Belize: A Study in Complexity and Heterarchy. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania. In 1987, while research continued on the 1986 studies, a new emphasis was developed on the Preceramic Period. Operation 4046 located off mound at the edge of an aguada recovered lithic tools and debitage from the Preceramic period.
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The majority of this was flake debitage of Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age character, and suggested that flint knapping had taken place at that location. Three sherds of Grooved Ware were also recovered from the site, two of which belonged to the same vessel. Gillings et al. believed that Falkner's Circle was probably erected in the late third or early second millennia BCE.
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The geography of the two sites is similar, consisting of a sandy plain formed by the withdrawal of glaciers about 10,000 years ago. The sand was then blown to produce dunes, among which the prehistoric occupants lived. The site was formally investigated in the 1980s, and the principal finds are stone artifacts. These include fluted projectile points, waste from stone tool work (debitage), and small channel scrapers.
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Lithics included debitage and a quartz scraper, suggesting a Native American presence at the site prior to the construction of the house. The Historical Society is currently renovating the house, which had come to some disrepair, with the help of locally raised funds and a grant from the State Historic Preservation Office., retrieved October 13, 2007. It will be used as a local history museum.
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Obsidian prismatic blade fragment, ChunchucmilThe chipped-stone assemblage of Chunchucmil is dominated by obsidian prismatic blades. The prismatic blade industry was ubiquitous throughout Mesoamerica and primarily used in the production of obsidian tools. Lithic analyses have determined that the majority of the blades at Chunchucmil were likely imported in finished form, as suggested by the general scarcity of polyhedral cores, production debitage, rejuvenation artifacts, and manufacturing errors at the site.Clark 1997.
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Ca. 6000 flints have been excavated, including a few bifacially worked knives (Keilmesser) and small pointed hand axes of Micoquien type (Faustkeilblätter). The bifacial tools are most common in layer A, while prepared cores are typical for layer B. Numerous unretouched blades and small debitage point to intense local tool production. The site may have been used as a base camp. In layer C bifacial tools again predominate.
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In 1975, Hammond returned to Colha for further investigations which uncovered large deposits of lithic production debitage and showed that the site had a long history of occupation.Wilk, Richard L. 1976 Work in Progress at Colha, Belize, 1976. In Maya Lithic Studies: Papers from the 1976 Field Symposium, edited by T.R. Hester and N. Hammond:35-40. Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio.
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Châtelperronian stone tools Large thick flakes/small blocks were used for cores, and were prepared with a crest over a long smooth surface. Using one or two striking points, long thin blades were detached. Direct percussion with a soft hammer was likely used for accuracy. Thicker blades made in this process were often converted into side scrapers, burins were often created in the same manner from debitage as well.
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However, there is little evidence of secondary retouch flakes at the site (Faught 2004a). The fact that most of the cores and debitage are "mostly without much cortex" infers that the raw materials that these tools were manufactured from came from another location. This is supported by the fact that no quarry areas have been located at the site. Among the artifact assemblage at the site there are several temporally diagnostic stone tools.
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This large, multi-component site also features some Archaic period occupations dating to the beginning of the Holocene. The human settlement here appears to have been continuous for at least 12,000 years.Barton Village Site (18AG3) - Western Maryland Chapter - Archeological Society of MDBarton Site 18AG3 - Maryland Archeobotany The early lithic assemblage is represented by the finds of debitage as well as cores, and tools surrounding a hearth. Bifaces, scrapers, and flake tools were discovered.
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One human burial was also found. Finds at the site include a wide variety of fish bones, most of which were Atlantic cod. This apparently distinguishes the site as primarily a fishing station; by comparison, a site on Moshier Island had a large number of faunal remains, principally deer. The site also includes a significant number of both stone tools and the debitage that results from their manufacture, suggesting extended seasonal occupation.
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RI-1072 is a small site at which a single quartz flake was found. It is located adjacent to an outcropping containing raw quartz, and is assumed to be a site where activity was limited to the extraction of raw material. RI-1073 is a larger area with significant debitage, suggesting it is an area where raw materials where tools were manufactured and repaired. It has three distinct areas where work took place.
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The finds were mainly reject axes, rough-outs and blades created by knapping large lumps of the rock found in the scree or perhaps by simple quarrying or opencast mining. Hammerstones have also been found in the scree and other lithic debitage from the industry such as blades and flakes. The area has outcrops of fine-grained greenstone or hornstone suitable for making polished stone axes. Such axes have been found distributed across Great Britain.
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The presence of cortex indicates the importation of an unworked nodule, with the first flakes both preparing the core by shaping and removing the roughened exterior of the cortex (Sheets 1978:9). The percentage frequency of cortex is an important statistic to help identify lithic production areas. A low incidence of cortex would indicate quarry preforming (cortex removed at the quarry, not at the site). One specific type of debitage analysis is mass analysis.
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In prehistoric times, the creek's valley was a source of quartzite cobbles for toolmaking. One quarry site is located at the bluffs overlooking Piney Branch from the north, about 30 feet below the summit of a southeast-facing hill. Dubbed the "Piney Branch Quarry Site", it was first examined by archeologist William Henry Holmes in 1889 and 1890. Another investigation begin in 2006 revealed quartzite debitage, whole and broken turtleback “preforms,” and half of a large ax.
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Seven layers of strata were identified, including bedrock at the lowest level and the agricultural plowzone at the top. Large number of stone flakes (debitage) related to the manufacture of stone tools were recovered, as were sixteen tools. The tools were manufactured from a variety of stone, predominantly rhyolite and chert, that were not local to the area. Fragments of pottery were also recovered, and one hearth-like feature was identified, whose charcoal fragments yielded radiocarbon dates of c.
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Obsidian debitage continued below these ash layers, suggesting that the area was used as a refuse deposit for a prolonged period. The largest causeway is long and ranges from wide, joining the acropoli of Bilbao and El Baúl. Before entering El Baúl, the causeway ran across a large bridge over the Santiago River gorge. The foundation walls of the bridge, which most probably sustained a wooden structure, are still visible along a 3 span of the river course.
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The Winooski Archeological Site is located on a terrace above the north bank of the Winooski River. It is demarcated on its sides by marshy terrain, which may have made the area a peninsula at the time of its occupation. The site is highly stratified, with cultural materials interbedded with silt from river flooding. Finds at the site include remnants of fire pits, ceramic fragments, stone tools and projectile points, and the debris (debitage) from stone tool manufacture.
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An unusual type of arrowhead was found at the site, that has been named as the Miller Lanceolate projectile point. Similar unfluted lanceolate points have also been found at the adjacent sites. As Goodyear writes: Enough lithic artifacts were recovered to define the Miller complex. This complex consists of thin bifaces, including one lanceolate point, the Miller Lanceolate; small prismatic blades; retouched flake tools and blades; and debitage related to late stage core and biface reduction and tool kit maintenance.
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Thirty-three pieces of microdebitage were recovered using water screening techniques, the largest of which measured 7 millimeters. From this information it was figured that the UNSM excavations were unbiased towards small artifacts. Second, this contrasted UNSM data of areas featuring heavy artifact and debitage clusters, which helps argue for specified use of areas in the site. Using this information, Hill sought to answer even more questions, and in 2004 he returned for another field school with funding from the National Science Foundation.
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The site contains a total of 415 stone artifacts from the three excavations. The recovered artifacts include fire-cracked rocks, modified and unmodified cobbles, and pebbles, and chipped-stone tools and debitage. There are more alluvial fire-cracked rocks than colluvial ones, implying the former was selected as boiling stones, and the latter were natural exposure to heat sources. The identified cobble tools include two direct percussion hammers, one bipolar percussion hammer, and a pitted cobble used for bipolar percussion or nut cracking.
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This is indicated by a lack of production debitage, including polyhedral cores, decortical flakes, and large percussion flakes, among rural occupations. Obsidian was generally transported, where applicable, along coastal trade routes. Of primary importance is the circum- peninsular trade route that linked the southeast Maya area to the Gulf coast of Mexico. Examples of evidence of this include the higher quantities of obsidian found among coastal sites, such as small island occupations off the coast of Belize, then at sites located in-land.
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Spiess, Arthur (1981). NRHP nomination for Archeological Site No. 29-64; redacted version available by request from the National Park Service In the 1980 excavation a trench long was dug through several of these features, and confirmed the assessment. Each feature had about of sterile soil laid on top of a habitation layer containing fire-cracked rock, charcol, pottery fragments, stone tools, and evidence of stone tool manufacture (debitage). These circular areas were surrounded by banks of clamshells that had slumped over time.
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Gramly had also argued against new laws that, in his view, tied the hands of U.S. archaeologists in favor of protecting Indian cultural heritage. In addition, the Tribes objected to the excavation of the site for personal profit (see below). In light of the dispute, Gramly’s dig proceeded on a shortened time frame, and ultimately removed approximatively 69 artifacts including tools, debitage, and bone fragments before closing the site. An uncertain number of items, including two more bone artifacts, were left in place.
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The McLemore Site is located on a terrace overlooking Cobb Creek outside the town of Colony in central western Oklahoma. The first major archaeological investigation took place in 1960 under the auspices of Dr. Robert E. Bell of Oklahoma State University. Three sections of the site were excavated: an area of cache and refuse pits, an area once containing a structure, and a cemetery with 48 burial sites. Artifacts found include pottery vessel fragments, a clay human effigy vessel, and stone tools and tool-making debitage.
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Rock paintings are scarce in southeast Botswana and the Manyana Rock Paintings are the only ones that have been excavated. Artifacts recovered from excavations suggest that the earliest occupation of this area took place between the 1st century and the 8th century, during the Later Stone Age. The Iron Age pottery uncovered suggests that the locals made their first contact with Iron Age herders between the 10th century and the 13th century. Excavations uncovered more than 7000 Later Stone Age artifacts, more than 95% are debitage.
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Because of the relatively thin soils, there is relatively little vertical separation of finds that might be divergent in date of deposition. The presence of artifacts clearly linked to the Archaic period also highlighted the importance of the site, as these are extremely rare in interior Maine.Spiess, Arthur (1986). NRHP nomination for Caratunk Falls Archeological District (redacted); available by request from the National Park Service Finds at the site include a large amount of stone toolmaking debris (debitage) from the Middle Archaic to the contact period.
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The effect of decompositional processes is that the older an archaeological deposit is, the more it will appear similar to the underlying geology. For some archaeologists, a basic rule of thumb is "the greater the contrast a context has with the natural, the younger it is." Similarly, United States prehistoric archaeologists often rely on significantly diminished counts of lithic flake debitage to assess the excavation unit's trend toward natural stratigraphy. While a trend may be recognized, a stratum is not called natural or sterile, unless it is void of cultural materials.
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Upper Neolithic axe-head preform A blank is a stone of suitable size and shape to be worked into a stone tool. Blanks are the starting point of a lithic reduction process, and during prehistoric times were often transported or traded for later refinement at another location. Blanks might be stones or cobbles, just as natural processes have left them, or might be quarried pieces, or flakes that are debitage from making another piece. Whatever their origin, on most definitions no further steps have yet been taken to shape them, or they become a preform.
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Fundamental elements for the technic description of a lithic flake In archaeology, a lithic flake is a "portion of rock removed from an objective piece by percussion or pressure,"Andrefsky, W. (2005) Lithics: Macroscopic Approaches to Analysis. 2d Ed. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press and may also be referred to as a chip or 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 (e.g.
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Pottery finds at the site were also characteristically Hohokam in their color, decoration, and design. Subsequent researchers have cast some doubt on the initial theories put forward by McGregor, suggesting instead that the site was primarily a trading site, rather than a permanent relocation. Additional finds at the site are more typical of the Sinagua people who dominated the surrounding area, including Sinagua-style pottery and a number of human remains buried in manners associated with known Sinagua practices. There were also shell fragments, consistent with being debitage left over from the manufacture of jewelry.
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Findings show, there is one known archaeological site within the proposed development area. This camp and bison kill site located on a ledge on a north-facing side slope of the property, extends for about 240m along the valley edge above Patterson Boulevard, achieving a 150m by about 60m area. The findings in this site consist of faunal remains recovered in nine (9) out of twenty two (22) tests, and no lithic debitage or fire broken rock. All positive tests are located within the area that will not be disturbed by the proposed development.
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A closeup of a shell midden in Argentina. A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, sherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human occupation. These features, therefore, provide a useful resource for archaeologists who wish to study the diets and habits of past societies. Middens with damp, anaerobic conditions can even preserve organic remains in deposits as the debris of daily life are tossed on the pile.
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The single publication on the Phillips-Williams Fork Reservoir site assemblage reports 28 projectile points of the James Allen variety and 2 projectile points of the Goshen/Plainview variety. Currently, there is no information about other recovered tool forms or debitage from the site. Relative dates for both categories have been established using radiocarbon dates from sites with similar assemblages from Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Montana, and elsewhere. These dates are 9350 – 7900 radiocarbon years for Jimmy Allen (Pitblado 2003) and 11,000 radiocarbon years for Goshen/Plainview (Frison 1991).
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In the year 2003 and 2004, Landmark Archaeological and Environmental Services began phase III mitigation to identified cultural features. This site is occupied by two primary components known as the Late Archaic McWhinney and Terminal Archaic Riverton. The Late to Terminal Archaic assemblage recovered from the Firehouse site is large and includes thousands of pieces of debitage and hundreds of chipped-stone scrapers, bifaces, retouched flakes, and other tools. This excavation was the first sizable Terminal Archaic assemblage with the recovery of bone and antler tool in the lower of Ohio River Valley.
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The Hardaway Site is located on a rocky ridge overlooking Badin Lake, occupying two knolls and the intervening saddle at the ridge's northern end. The site is stratified into four layers of cultural material, found above an otherwise sterile layer of clay. Each of these layers contains extensive evidence of human habitation and use, including stone-lined hearths, and large volumes of stone tool creation byproducts (debitage). The uppermost layer of material has been disturbed by historic activities, including occupation by Native Americans in the colonial period, and plowing for agriculture.
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Shuqba cave falls within the broader prehistoric landscape of the Wadi en-Natuf. While most of the lithic material in the immediate (1-km) survey along area along the wadi's north bank is concentrated around the cave, debitage has been found at a small natural terrace 200 m south of the cave. Surface collection suggests that this material derives from the cave and from the 1928 spoil, the bulk of which has been washed down the slope. A terrace is visible today, but it was constructed as part of modern agricultural practices.
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The earliest deposits are of a Mesolithic (circa 10,000 BC) hunting camp excavated by Davey in Northbrooks in the 1970s (Unpublished) closely followed by the large and unexcavated deposits of Neolithic flint beside Gilden Way. These deposits are mostly known because of the large numbers of surface-bound, worked flint. Substantial amounts of worked flint suggest an organised working of flint in the area. Large amounts of debitage litter the area and tools found include axe heads, hammers, blades, dowels and other boring tools and multipurpose flints such as scrapers.
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The presence of Lepidorbitoid fossils in some flints indicates even more distant sources located in the Béarn province, more than away. Apparently, the flint outcrops of the Petites Pyrénées to the northeast were not used The tooling is simple and consists mainly of scrapers and denticulates, the execution is often incomplete and irregular. The main production method is the discoid bifacial breakdown. Tools and products of full Levallois debitage, debris, by-products and retouching shards are present in large numbers, as are sandstone and granite hammering tools, although in smaller numbers.
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Christian R. Tryon and Anthony R. Philpotts (1997), Possible Sources of Mylonite and Hornfels Debitage From the Cooper Site, Lyme, Connecticut, Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of Connecticut 60, pages 3-12 Finds at the site have been dated as far back as c. 500 CE, and include narrow-stemmed projectile points, most of which were made from local quartz, but also from more distant chert and hornfels, some which is from quarries as far off as New Jersey. Pottery finds include fragments with dentate stamping. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
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Obsidian prismatic blade production was ubiquitous in Mesoamerica, and these tools can be found at a large majority of Mesoamerican archaeological sites from the Preclassic period on until the arrival of the Spanish in the early 16th century. Ethnohistoric sources recount the process of prismatic blade production. Fray Motolinia, a Spanish observer, recorded: The production of prismatic blades creates not only a very standardized final product, but also a standardized waste assemblage.Clark and Bryant (1997) The analysis of obsidian debitage can reveal whether or not prismatic blade production occurred at a site and, if it had, what stages of production the process included.
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The stone tools of these industries, along with preforms, lithic core, technical flakes, and pieces of angular debitage, mainly of chalcedony, are found on and in late middle Pleistocene-age fanglomerates and younger inset alluvial terraces in the Calico Hills (also known as the Yermo Hills) east of the Calico Peaks and the Calico Mountains. The location is in the central portion of southern California's Mojave Desert. Historically, this archaeological project has also been known as "The Calico Mountains Archaeological Site" and "The Calico Hills Archaeological Site". Today, it is called "The Calico Early Man Site".
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Its association with that act of bloodletting is important, as it is argued by some researchersFor example see Evans (2004) that obsidian was seen as a type of blood originating from the earth – its use in autosacrifice is therefore especially symbolic. Objects made of obsidian were often buried in upper class tombs as special deposits or caches. Obsidian debitage is found in many of these tombs in addition to evidence of its use in temple dedications, potlaching, or offerings. For example, flakes have been found in association with stelae offerings and related to specific gods at the Maya site of Tikal.
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At the time of the discovery, only one other site east of the Mississippi River had been dated to that age. The charcoal consisted of small flecks associated with light debitage below a definitive Early Archaic to Late Paleoindian (Dalton culture) zone. After careful consideration, DeJarnette and Knight suggested that the charcoal originated from an upper level and migrated to the lower level due to breakdown of the original shelter floor. Although the Paleoindian date may be questioned, the site also contained a remarkable Early Archaic burial, one of the oldest burials uncovered in the State of Alabama.
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The East Wenatchee Clovis Site yielded 36 ancient stone tools and 12 transversely beveled rods of carved and in some cases incised mammoth or mastodon bone, plus scores of stone flakes or "debitage" left over from tool manufacture or maintenance. It was the only intact Clovis site ever found in Washington state, and one of many significant prehistoric finds in the state’s history. The cache held the largest Clovis points then known to science, one of them 9.15 inches (23.25 cm) long, knapped from white agate (also called chalcedony). Before this discovery the largest Clovis points were only measured at around 6 inches.
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Unexpectedly, part of this area had escaped the looting and collecting and had intact archaeology just below the surface. Physical and cultural stratigraphic evidence as well as luminescence dating are consistent in showing a coherent sequence of lithic material evidencing this older occupation followed by Clovis, Late PaleoIndian, Early Archaic, and Middle/Late Archaic occupations over an apparent span of more than 16,000 calendar years. Tools numbering in the thousands were removed from the site before professional excavations began, however a large quantity of tools and debitage remained. Currently, the number recovered is estimated at ca.
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Lycett and Eren created 75 Levallois flakes from 25 Texas Chert nodules. They counted the 3957 flakes and separated them into four stages in order to show efficiency, which grew subsequently in each stage. Based on the comparative study of 567 debitage flakes and 75 preferential Levallois flakes, Lycett and Eren found out the thickness is more evenly distributed and less variable across preferential Levallois flakes, which indicates the thickness is an important factor for efficiency and retouch potential. The experiment also shows that the Levallois core is an economic optimal strategy of raw material (lithic) usage, which means it can generate longest cutting edge per weight unit of raw material.
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There is also a general lack of preservation in terms of organic remains and a shortage of well-defined stratigraphy which has made archaeology, and distinction between different occupational periods, difficult. A large number of lithics, both debitage as well as projectile points, were discovered during Thompson's archaeological work at the site, suggesting that this rockshelter was a place of intense lithic production. He also excavated ground stones from some of the lower levels of the site, and ceramic sherds from the first four levels of his trench. Thompson concluded that the first four levels represented a Woodland phase occupation dated to about AD 500.
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A return visit was made in 1975, at which time tools of stone and bone, pottery fragments, and remains of toolmaking (debitage) were recovered. The site underwent a significant excavation in 1978, led by a local school teacher, whose collection is now in the Robert Abbe Museum of Stone Antiquities in Bar Harbor. Among the thousands of objects recovered from the site there are stone and bone tools, pottery fragments, and projectile points. The site resembles the Goddard Site in Brooklin as a multi-component site, and offers the potential to reveal a great deal about human occupation of the area over a significant time period.
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Depending on the form of classification that one uses, it may be argued that retouch can also be conducted on a core-tool, if such a category exists, such as a hand- axe. Retouch may simply consist of roughly trimming an edge by striking with a hammerstone, or on smaller, finer flake or blade tools it is sometimes carried out by pressure flaking. Other forms of retouch may include burination, which is retouch that is conducted in a parallel orientation to the flake margin. Retouch is often taken as one of the most obvious features distinguishing a tool from a waste by-product of lithic manufacture (debitage).
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The Marica culture (also known as Maritsa or Maritza) is now equated with the Karanovo V culture, and considered by Todorova to be early and middle Eneolithic (see Ehrich reference). The Boian culture continued to improve its ceramic technology until it reached its height during Phase III, after which it began to decline in quality and workmanship. The use of lithic technology occurred throughout this culture's existence, attested to by the presence of debitage found next to various types of shaped flint and polished stone tools. Towards the end of its existence copper artifacts began to be found, made from the high-grade copper found in the Balkan Mountains of Bulgaria.
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The Protoclassic is growing in acceptance as a distinct period in Maya history, but is generally referred to as the Terminal Preclassic (0 – 250 AD). Increases in obsidian production technology, procurement, and distribution can be used as lines of evidence in this debate. In Copan and its hinterland regions the pattern of large flakes spalls and small nodules continued until the late Protoclassic when the population increased and a subsequent rise in production technology (Aoyama 2001). Polyhedral cores and blade production debitage are noted in assemblages related to principle urban group residences suggesting political control by a ruler over obsidian trade and distribution (Aoyama 2001).
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Also different is that tranchet arrowheads are made from a blade struck off a core versus being made from debitage like chisel arrowheads. The edge of the flake could be sharpened again by removing another flake from it. Known as the tranchet technique that makes the tranchet flake, this term can be defined in two ways: first, it is the forming of a straight edge used to cut from the edge of the tranchet flake by taking off a large flat flake from the tip. Second, it can be defined as the method one uses to resharpen or form the cutting edge of either an ax or an adze.
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Artifacts documented at the site consist of ceramics, stone tools including a hammerstone, lithic debitage, and animal bones. A distinctive feature left behind by the occupants is a pit across and deep lined with a silty clay not found anywhere else at the site. Archaeologists have tentatively identified this as a jig for processing wild rice, a staple food in the region. As of the site's 1988 National Register nomination, only 2.5% of its area had been excavated, and no radiocarbon or thermoluminescence dating had been conducted, so its dating to the late Woodland period derived only from the surface treatment of the ceramic sherds, a projectile point, and the suggestion of intensive wild rice use.
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Tchakirides 29 He also concluded that the projectile points in the first four levels of his excavation were different from those in the bottom levels which further represented different occupations in different time periods. This rockshelter represents the use of different areas for different tasks, as concluded by the discovery of hearths in Test Unit Three, and large amounts of lithic debitage in Test Unit One. There is also evidence of storage at the site, suggesting long term occupation, and continuous use of the site. Tchakirides' research at the site exemplifies that an intense occupation, at least during the Late Archaic/Early Ceramic transitional period, took place in the Cherry Creek Rockshelter.
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The ceramics for the most part reflect the pattern that was being established at other burials in Altun Ha. Above the burial, however, the roof showed association to the large Mexican site Teotihuacan. The burial was capped with over 8,000 pieces of chert debitage and 163 formal chert tools. The ritual offering, or cache, also contained jade beads, Spondylus valves, puma and dog teeth, slate laminae, and a large variety of shell artifacts. The clear association to Teotihuacan however, comes from the 248 Pachuca green obsidian objects and the 23 ceramic jars, bowls and dishes.Pendergast, David M. 1971 Evidence of Early Teotihucan-Lowland Maya Contact at Altun Ha. American Antiquity 36(4):pp. 455-460.
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A hammerstone is made of a material such as sandstone, limestone or quartzite, is often ovoid in shape (to better fit the human hand), and develops telltale battering marks on one or both ends. In archaeological recovery, hammerstones are often found in association with other stone tool artifacts, debitage and/or objects of the hammer such as ore.Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 1904C. Michael Hogan, Los Osos Back Bay, Megalithic Portal, editor A. Burnham (2008) The modern use of hammerstones is now mostly limited to flintknappers and others who wish to develop a better understanding of how stone tools were made.
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In 2006, the remaining portion of the site was purchased for preservation by The Archaeological Conservancy. Archaeological excavations at the Lamoka Lake site have recovered large numbers of projectile points - primarily Lamoka points; stone netsinkers, groundstone and polished stone tools - including beveled adzes, hammerstones, pestles, mullers, mortars, and metates; bone tools - including awls, knives, and fish hooks; lithic debitage; and animal bones - primarily white-tailed deer, tree squirrel, and passenger pigeon; and human burials. Numerous archaeological features, including pits, postmolds, hearths, firebeds and ash layers, have also been identified. The majority of artifacts and features date to the Late Archaic Period, although later Woodland Period artifacts have also been recovered from the site.
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The Tambun rock art of the Neolithic era in Tambun near Ipoh Among the prehistoric sites in Malaysia where artefacts from the Middle Palaeolithic era have been found are Bukit Bunuh, Bukit Gua Harimau, Bukit Jawa, Bukit Kepala Gajah, and Kota Tampan in the Lenggong Archaeological Heritage Valley. Of these, Bukit Bunuh and Kota Tampan are ancient lakeside sites, the geology of Bukit Bunuh showing evidence of meteoric impact. The 10,000-year-old skeleton known as Perak Man was found inside the Bukit Gunung Runtuh cave at Bukit Kepala Gajah. Ancient tools discovered in the area of Kota Tampan, including anvils, cores, debitage, and hammerstones, provide information on the migrations of Homo sapiens.
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Carn Menyn bluestones In 1923 the petrologist Herbert Henry Thomas proposed that bluestone from the hills corresponded to that used to build the inner circle of Stonehenge, and later geologists suggested that Carn Menyn (formerly called Carn Meini) was one of the bluestone sources. Recent geological work has shown this theory to be incorrect. It is now thought that the bluestones at Stonehenge and fragments of bluestone found in the Stonehenge "debitage" have come from multiple sources on the northern flanks of the hills, such as at Craig Rhos-y-felin. Advanced details of a recent contribution to the puzzle of the precise origin of the Stonehenge bluestones were published by the BBC in November 2013.
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Three major clusters of cultural artifacts were found, as were a number of minor ones; based on the area surveyed to uncover these features, the site was judged to be that of a large seasonal encampment, involving multiple family units. One of the major clusters had a significant number of stone tools, and the byproducts of their manufacture (debitage), suggesting that area was a specialized work area. The other two major concentrations have a broader array of materials, suggesting that they were living spaces. Most of the stone tools recovered were scrapers and other domestic tools; only one projectile point was found, with a style that was ambiguous as to placement in known historical sequences.
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The complex consists of a number of sites around the edges of Beaver Meadow, a large swampy area in the center of the state forest. Large numbers of stone tools, projectile points, and debitage (remains from stone tool manufacture) were recovered during the surveys of the 1980s. These objects were formed out of a variety of materials, including flint, slate, quartz, and hornfels. The quantity and type of tools found at these sites suggest that at least some of them were the result of long-term seasonal occupation, rather than temporary use as an upland hunting camp, which is a departure from other settlement areas of the period, which are normally found closer to rivers in this region.
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At Parc Cwm long cairn a variety of mortuary practices was evident and the deliberate ordering of skeletal parts noticeable. Whittle and Wysocki (1998) note cremated human remains were placed only in the front, right (south-east) chamber, where females and males, and all age ranges were represented. The south-east chamber was also unusual in that it contained nearly three times as many individuals as in each of the other chambers, which contained the remains of all representative groups except younger children and infants. At the forecourt entrance Atkinson recorded finds, deposited in groups, including: flint debitage, lithic cores and a bladelet (burnt and unburnt); a leaf-shaped arrowhead (burnt); pieces of quartz; pieces of stalactite (now missing); sherds of Neolithic pottery; and cremated bone fragments.
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420px Apart from a few stratified cave sites—and those rare open-air sites where archaeological materials were deposited so rapidly that bioturbation and resultant destratifications failed to keep pace with deposition, most prehistoric cultural materials of the world reside in the soil biomantle. Such materials are thus mixed, and technically and theoretically out of its original context. Since many cultural materials (cleavers, choppers' core-stones, metates, manos, pestles, etc.) are invariably larger than burrow diameters of most key bioturbators at such sites (small rodents, ants, termites, worms), they settle downward and form a stonelayer, and thus become part of a two-layered biomantle. Smaller artifacts (flakes, debitage) often are homogenized throughout the upper biomantle, and commonly observed in recent bioturbational spoil heaps, like those produced by pocket gophers, moles, and mole-rats.
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Most sites are caves but there is increasing evidence for open air activity and that preferred sources of flint were exploited and that tools travelled distances of up to 100 miles from their sources. Some of the flint at Gough's Cave came from the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire whilst non-local seashells and amber from the North Sea coast also indicate a highly mobile population. This matches evidence from the Magdelanian cultures elsewhere in Europe and may suggest that exchange of goods and the sending out of specialised expeditions seeking raw materials may have been practised. Analysis of debitage at occupation sites suggests that flint nodules were reduced in size at source and the lighter blades carried by Creswellian groups as 'toolkits' in order to reduce the weight carried.
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In conjunction with the Office of Archaeological Research (OAR), the Alabama Archaeological Society (AAS) performed testing on 1Ct161 over two weekends in the summer of 1982. The first weekend focused on a controlled surface survey of four by four meter squares laid out over the site, with material collected, bagged and marked by square with the help of over 40 AAS members. The artifacts were taken to the Alabama Museum of Natural History to be cleaned and curated by the University of Alabama, but they have never been analyzed. The second weekend of study was led by Lawrence Alexander of the University of Alabama and consisted of a series of backhoe trenches placed on areas containing the greatest density of debitage These trenches were placed on a slight rise in the approximate center of 1Ct161.
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The Levallois technique of flint-knapping 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. Normally the starting point is the selection of a piece of tool stone that has been detached by natural geological processes, and is an appropriate size and shape. In some cases solid rock or larger boulders may be quarried and broken into suitable smaller pieces, and in others the starting point may be a piece of the debitage, a flake removed from a previous operation to make a larger tool.
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Since the excavation in Blombos Cave began, more than 500 points or point fragments have been recovered, of which 352 have been described in detail. The dominant raw material used for Still Bay point production in Blombos Cave is silcrete (72%), followed by quartzite (15%) and quartz (13%). Whereas the quartzite and quartz raw material is easily available in close vicinity to the cave, the exact source for silcrete has not been established. It is speculated that it may come from outcrops in Riversdale or Albertinia – some 30 km away – or from now underwater sources. Approximately 90% of the Still Bay points recovered from Blombos Cave have been classified as "production rejects", and preliminary analysis of the lithic material from the ‘CC’ unit suggests that the majority of the lithic debitage are by-products of bifacial point manufacture.
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In terms of material culture it is difficult to differentiate between the Terminal Classic and Late Classic. On exception to this may be seen in a shift in lithic assemblages and ceramics toward a style that is influenced by major sites on the Yucatan. Valdez sees this shift in the inclusion of Petkanche Orange polychrome ceramics in the Masson complex and the appearance trade wares from the Yucatan (Ticul Thin Slate ceramics). While others note the specialization in smaller stemmed blades to indicate this shift through the adoption of atlatl technology and/or the increased demand for these points in the export market to accommodate an increase in Maya warfare.Masson, Marilyn A. 1989 Lithic Production Changes in Late Classic Maya Workshops at Colha, Belize: A Study of Debitage Variation. Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, Florida State University.Roemer, Erwin 1984 A Late Classic Maya Lithic Workshop at Colha, Belize. Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M; University, College Station.
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Much of the cache remained "in context" for scientists to explore, meaning it was not overly disturbed by digging prior to archaeological work. Most major Clovis caches have only been explored after they were unearthed and scattered by road projects and construction work, or removed to private collections. Some researchers postulated that the cache might have represented a large habitation camp; a hunting toolkit, buried and then dug up for seasonal stalking of game; a ceremonial or funeral site; or a ritual offering to stave off ecological harm brought on by the eruption of nearby Glacier Peak, 11,250 radiocarbon years BP, even though the presence of large amounts of debitage and fragmented bone is a good indicator that the site didn't represent a cache at all and the Glacier Peak eruption is thought to have occurred over two centuries before the emergence of the Clovis culture. Some members of Northwest Indian tribes claimed the Clovis hunters as ancestors, and argued against exploring the site out of respect for the dead. The debate helped frame archaeologists’ relationships with local tribes in future research.
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During the 1994 excavations of mastodon B, archaeologists identified 34 lithic items identified as stone tools or debitage, apparently in association with the disarticulated faunal remains. These tools included prismatic blades, scrapers, gravers, and resharpening flakes. Subsequent examination of the bones from mastodon B revealed what were identified as cut marks on a thoracic vertebra, which was recovered in direct contact with several flakes. Based on the profile and character of these marks, and their location along the thoracic spinous process, it was proposed that they resulted from butchering, and specifically, efforts to remove dorsal muscles along the backbone. Radiocarbon and Oxidizable carbon ratio samples collected in 1984 from sediments surrounding the remains of mastodon B returned dates ranging in age between 10,260+/-240 and 14,750+/-220 radiocarbon years before present (14C BP), with a maximum age of 27,050+/-200 14C BP. Radiocarbon samples from around the bone deposits collected in 2010 returned dates of 1960+/-30, 12,300+/-60, 23,250+/-110, and 29,120+/-110 14C BP. Collectively these dates suggested a possible pre-Clovis affiliation for the site, but included problematic maximum and minimum age ranges.
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