Small Things Brought Together: Analyzing the Microdebitage of Experimental Lithic Assemblages

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Microdebitage—flakes and flake fragments < ¼-inch in size—are often overlooked. Because the average size of debitage decreases as reduction progresses, archaeologists often infer tool maintenance (e.g., scraper resharpening or projectile point rejuvenation) when finding large quantities of small debitage in archaeological contexts. However, experimental flintknapping has shown that small flakes and flake fragments are created throughout tool production. Additionally, if humans clean up and move flintknapping debris, they are more likely to move larger debitage away from the area in which it was produced.

In this project, I analyze the microdebitage from 16 experimentally knapped modern assemblages on cryptocrystalline silicate materials. These experimental assemblages include production debitage and resharpening debitage from tools including unifacial scrapers, bifaces, and flake blank tools. Debitage from each stage of reduction and each resharpening episode were collected separately. My objective is to determine if there is a significant difference between the microdebitage generated during stone tool manufacture versus resharpening. These results will help archaeologists determine if tool production or maintenance was the dominant stone-working behavior in archaeological assemblages with high proportions of small flakes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37333.0