A Short History of Flintknapping, Page 1

PAGE 1
"A SHORT HISTORY OF FLINTKNAPPING"
BY PETE BOSTROM
REPRINTED FROM
"MODERN LITHIC ARTISTS JOURNAL"
PAGE 1 OF 3 PAGES
IMAGES COPYRIGHT MARCH 31, 2005 PETER A. BOSTROM

Volume 1 "MODERN LITHIC ARTISTS JOURNAL"
A newly formed society of lithic craftsmen and people who collect their many forms of art in stone.

Abstract image of Tussinger eccentric.

abstract

DRAWING BY MERA HERTEL

"A SHORT HISTORY OF FLINTKNAPPING"
REPRINTED FROM THE "MODERN LITHIC ARTISTS JOURNAL"
Volume 1, January 2005

by Pete Bostrom

This article is reprinted from the first publication of the "Modern Lithic Artists Journal." The Lithic Artists Guild is a newly formed society of lithic craftsmen and people who collect their many forms of art in stone.
You can join the Lithic Artists Guild and receive two very high quality 112 page journals per year. The associate guild membership dues are $50.00 per year. Payment can be sent to Lithic Artists Guild Ltd., P.O. Box 270, Manito, IL 61546. The website is located at www.lithicartistsguild.com and the telephone contact number for questions is Tom Onken at 309 241 4533.

"To be published is to be seen." This basic concept is fundamental throughout the entire art world."------2005, Tom Onken.

A SHORT HISTORY OF FLINTKNAPPING

By Pete Bostrom

Flintknapping is the term we use for the many different flake removal technologies that were used to produce the "majority" of all stone tools made on the planet. This process is accomplished by a multitude of various techniques and tools. But the basic theme involves reducing the volume of a stone by removing flakes. This is achieved by either direct, indirect or pressure flaking until the desired shape is obtained. Flintknapping can be traced farther back in time than any other technology.
Two important technological innovations greatly affected the coarse of human development. One was the controlled use of fire and the other was the invention of lithic technology, or stone tool making. It might be argued that flintknapping was the most important invention, because it appears first in the archaeological record. Lower animal forms, like chimpanzees, sea otters or Egyptian vultures have been observed using "rocks" as tools, in their unmodified natural forms. But early humans began to modify "rocks" by flaking them in ways that produced sharp edges for cutting. They began to rely on their knowledge of lithic technology for survival. Their greatest advance happened when they began to develop technologies that allowed them to adapt and begin to control their environment. Stone tool making marks the first evidence in the prehistoric record of a simple cultural tradition based on learning.

FLAKE TOOL
OLDUVAI GORGE
TANZANIA, AFRICA
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY COLLECTION

The earliest flintknapped stone tools were simple flakes like this example from Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, Africa. The sharp edges could have been used for cutting into the hides of animals. This flake tool dates to somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million years ago. It measures 1 5/16 inches long (33mm)

Flintknapping crosses evolutionary boundaries. In fact, the farther back in time that archaeologists look, stone tools seem to keep reappearing. The archaeological record has shown that several different species of humans were producing stone tools. The earliest stone tool manufacturing sites are between 2 and 3 million years old. The most recent discovery is Homo floresiensis or the so-called "Flores Man" also known as the "hobbit." This small 3-foot tall hominid was making simple flake tools on Flores Island, Indonesia for approximately 95,000 years and as recently as 13 thousand years ago. Other human species besides Homo sapiens were also prolific tool makers. Homo habilis, Homo erectus and the Neanderthals are three more examples. They were making stone tools far longer than modern humans were and, comparatively speaking, Homo sapiens has been flintknapping for only a few seconds of the human time-line.

DRAWING BY MERA HERTEL
PRIMITIVE EARLY HUMAN
MAKING A STONE TOOL

Homo sapiens has a long history of stone tools making. But there were also several other human species who were flintknapping stone tools. Four examples of these primitive tool makers are Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Neanderthals and the recently discovered Homo floresiensis.

If you consider all the different forms of flintknapping that have ever been done it would seem that stone has been flaked into every conceivable shape. The archaeological record shows a slow, progressive development of lithic technology. The first stone tools began to be made sometime during the Lower Paleolithic period in Africa. Flintknapping has evolved from the simple flake tools of the Oldowan stone tool industry to very complicated eccentrics made during the "golden age" of the Mayan culture. Up until a few hundred thousand years ago, stone tools were very crudely made, consisting mostly of simple flakes, choppers, cleavers and hand axes. The majority of them were manufactured with simple stone hammers.

CONTINUE ON TO PAGE TWO

"REFERENCES"

2005, Bostrom, Peter A., "A Short History of Flintknapping," Modern Lithic Artists Journal, Vol. 1 January, pp. 3-6.

1898, Snyder, J. F., "The American Archaeologist, Vol. 2 Part II," "Counterfeiting Indian Relics," pp. 131-133.
1898, Snyder, J. F., "The American Archaeologist, Vol. 2 Part 5," "Counterfeiting Indian Relics," pp. 299-301.
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1983, Forrest, A. J., "Masters of Flint," "Is This the Industrie’s Final Phase?" pp. 117-125.
1988, Tattersall, Ian, Eric Delson & John Van Couvering, "Encyclopedia of Human Evolution & Prehistory," "Fire," pp. 207-209, "Oldowan," pp.387-390, "Stone Tool Making," pp. 542-548.
1993, Shick, Kathy D. & Toth, Nicholas, "Making Silent Stones Speak," "Experimenting With Stone: Artifact manufacture and Use," pp. 21-24, "An African Later Acheulean Example: Kalambo Falls, Zambia," pp. 264-268.
1994, Whittaker, John C., "Flintknapping, Making & Understanding Stone Tools," "Modern Knapping," pp. 54-61.
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1990’s, "Aztecnics Company, "The Alternative Edge," brochure for Aztecnics, Inc., obsidian scalpels.
1997, Waldorf, D. C. "Chips, Vol. 9, #1," "Grey Ghosts and Old Timers."
2000, Whittaker, John C., "Near Eastern Archaeology, Vol. 63, No.2," "The Ethnoarchaeology of Threshing in Cyprus," pp. 62-69.
2002, Nelson, Larry, "Chips, Vol. 14, #4," "The Richard Warren I Knew," pp. 16-18.
2004, Whittaker, John C., "American Flintknappers," "The Knap-In: People and Organization," pp. 72-76.
2005, Moorwood, Mike, Sutikna, Thomas, Roberts, Richard, "The People Time Forgot--Flores Find, April, 2005, "National Geographic," pp. 4-15.
1990’s, Personal Communications, Charley Shewey.
1995, Personal Communications, J. Desmond Clark, Kalambo Falls excavation, Zambia, University of California, Berkeley.
2004, Personal communications, Mark Moore, team member, Flores Island excavation, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.

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