Cores are not the desired products of manufacture.

They were simply thrown away after being reduced

by striking off long narrow flakes of stone that were in

turn used to make the desired end product, in this
case micro-drills.
   Experiments that have duplicated micro-blades

(Morse 1983) for the production of micro-drills are most

successful when using bipolar percussion. This technique

involves placing a core on an anvil (another rock) and

striking the core from above with a hammerstone. The

flakes produced by this process tend to have flat release

surfaces and little bulb of percussion. Bipolar percussion

produces cores that are barrel shaped and flakes removed

from both ends.
   The cores in this picture show several different ways in

which the blades were fracturing or separating from the

core. Some of the flake removals were cleanly fractured

from end to end while others were hinging off only half

way down the length of the core.