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MAMMOTH IVORY
BILLET-BURNISHER

BLACKWATER DRAW LOCALITY NO. 1
CLOVIS CULTURE
EST. 14,000 YEARS AGO
PAGE 2 OF 2 PAGES
COPYRIGHT MARCH 31, 2010 PETER A. BOSTROM
Mike Dothager knapped bifaces and point.
BIFACES AND POINT

   Made by Mike Dothager with the rocker punch indirect percussion flake removal technique.

     Ivory artifacts similar to this example from Blackwater Draw also occur on Eurasian Upper Paleolithic sites. Some of those artifacts, although they are similar in size, shape and material to the Blackwater Draw ivory piece, do not show any use wear and are considered unfinished "blanks" intended for later use. But this is clearly not the case for the billet/burnisher from Blackwater Draw. It has use wear on three different surfaces indicating that it was used as some type of tool. Agogino and Haynes concluded at the time of its discovery that the smoothness of one end indicated that it was used as a polisher possibly for leather. The other end was not nearly as smooth.

Mike Dothager knapped bifaces and antler tools.
BIFACES
& MODERN KNAPPING TOOLS
MIKE DOTHAGER

     This picture shows two moose antler tools made by Mike Dothager. The example at lower left is a replica of the ivory billet/burnisher from the Blackwater Draw Locality No. 1 site. The moose antler tool at lower right is used as a punch which is struck by the billet hammer in order to remove flakes. The two bifaces at top were shaped with indirect percussion flaking, a technique that Mike Dothager calls rocker punch flaking.

    Semenov explains that upper Paleolithic bone tools that look like mattocks (a tool used for loosening the soil or digging up and cutting roots, etc.) are often classified as burnishers. Burnishers are tools used for rubbing skins. Almost all skins undergo a process of applying pressure to the surface that compresses the outer layer to make it look prettier, tougher and impermeable. In today's modern industry, large machines with rollers are used for this purpose. Ancient burnishers, made of bone and ivory are small and were held in the hand. They were used to apply a lot of pressure over small areas. Color was applied by mixing red ochre and grease and rubbing the mixture into the surface of the skin. Traces of red ochre has been found on some Paleolithic burnishers.

Mike Dothager knapped bifaces with indirect percussion.
MODERN BIFACES
MADE WITH ROCKER PUNCH TECHNIQUE
BY MIKE DOTHAGER

    This picture illustrates two bifaces that were made with indirect rocker punch flaking technology. Reduction flakes were detached from all angles.

    Similar ivory artifacts to the one from Black Water Draw have been found on a Gravettian site (26,000 before present) in Czechoslovakia and are described as flintknapping billets (hammers). Experiments with replicated tools have indicated they may have been used in the process of retouching (flaking) flint artifacts.

Mike Dothager removing flake with indirect percussion.
PHOTO BY MIKE DOTHAGER
INDIRECT PERCUSSION ROCKER PUNCH FLAKING
BY MIKE DOTHAGER

    Mike Dothager illustrates, in this picture, the "general" posture a Clovis flintknapper may have used for shaping various types of Clovis tools. The billet hammer is a copy of the example from Blackwater Draw. The technology is indirect percussion flaking. It allows the knapper to lay the punch directly on the location where the next flake is to be removed. This basic technique also gives the craftsman much more leverage/energy to remove extremely large flakes, especially those removed from some of the largest Clovis biface cores. If past discoveries of these large artifacts are any indication, one might speculate that some yet undiscovered examples of Clovis biface cores might have been very large indeed. Indirect percussion flaking seems to be a logical and possibly the basic technology that was used by some Clovis knappers, especially those in some of the western areas of the United States.

     At this point in time it seems that the Billet/Burnisher from Black Water Draw may be a multi-purpose tool. It may have been used as both a burnisher and a flintknapping billet. There seems to be no clear evidence that it was used exclusively for any one single purpose.

Flake removed with indirect percussion by Mike Dothager.
PHOTO BY MIKE DOTHAGER
INDIRECT PERCUSSION ROCKER PUNCH FLAKING
BY MIKE DOTHAGER

    This picture illustrates a flake that was removed with the use of a replica of the billet/burnisher from the Black Water Draw site. The technique is indirect percussion flaking which allows the knapper to remove long flakes that travel across the biface surface to the opposite side. A signature trait of this technique are bifaces that have flake removals detached from all sides and angles.

     Another example of this tool's possible use is illustrated in this article by Mike Dothager. He made a replica out of moose antler and demonstrates how it may have been used with indirect percussion rocker-punch technology. Flaking patterns made with this process show a resemblance to Clovis biface reduction technique. There is no doubt that a tool of this size and material can be used as a flintknapping tool.

Opposite edge removed with indirect percussion, Dothager.
PHOTO BY MIKE DOTHAGER
INDIRECT PERCUSSION ROCKER PUNCH FLAKING

BY MIKE DOTHAGER

    This picture, as demonstrated by Mike Dothager, illustrates a common edge-to-edge break pattern that is found on Clovis manufacturing sites. The flake that has been removed traveled across to the opposite side and removed a portion of the edge.

     The ivory billet/burnisher from the Blackwater Draw Locality No. 1 site is extraordinary for its rarity. It was a unique discovery indeed, but then it was lost and later it was discovered yet again. So it would seem that all the science in the world is never quite enough. More often than not, luck is still necessary, still part of the equation upon which new discoveries are made.

"REFERENCES"

1957, Wormington, H. M., "Ancient Man In North American," pp. 47-50.
1963
, Bryan, Alan Lyle, "Paleo-American Prehistory," pp. 116-117.
1970
, Semenov, S. A., Prehistoric Technology, An Experimental Study Of The Oldest Tools And Artifacts From Traces Of Manufacture And Wear," pp. 175-179.
1991
, Saunders, Jeffrey J., Agogino, George A., Boldurian, Anthony T., and Haynes, C. Vance Jr., "A Mammoth-Ivory Burnisher-Billet From The Clovis Level, Blackwater Locality No. 1, New Mexico," Plains Anthropologist, Vol. 36, No. 137, pp. 359-362.
1999, Boldurian, Anthony T., Cotter, John L., "Clovis Revisited New Perspectives On Paleoindian Adaptations From Blackwater Draw, New Mexico," p. 93.
2002, Haynes, Gary, "The Early Settlement Of North America, The Clovis Era," pp. 124-125.
2006, Stanford, Dennis, Smith, Bruce D., Ubelaker, Douglas H., Szathmary, Emoke J. E., "Handbook Of North American Indians," Environment, Origins, And Population, Vol. 3, p. 152.
2006, Webb, S. David, "First Floridians And Last Mastodons: The Page-Ladson Site In The Aucilla River," p
2009, Meltzer, David J., "First Peoples In A New World," pp. 244-246.
Personal Communications with Mike Dothager
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