Flintknapping: Making and Understanding Stone Tools

by John C. Whittaker

Overview

Flintknapping is an ancient craft enjoying a resurgence of interest among both amateur and professional students of prehistoric cultures. John C. Whitaker's bestselling guide is a detailed handbook on flintknapping, written from the archaeological perspective of interpreting stone tools as well as making them.

Flintknapping contains detailed, practical information on making stone tools. Whittaker starts at the beginner level and progresses to discussion of a wide range of techniques. He includes information on necessary tools and materials, as well as step-by-step instructions for making several basic stone tool types. Numerous diagrams allow the reader to visualize the flintknapping process, and drawings of many stone tools illustrate the discussions and serve as models for beginning knappers.

Written for a wide amateur and professional audience, Flintknapping will be essential for practicing knappers as well as for teachers of the history of technology, experimental archaeology, and stone tool analysis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292792555
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	03/01/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	351
File size:	28 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

John C. Whittaker is a professor of anthropology at Grinnell College and the author of American Flintknappers: Stone Age Art in the Age of Computers.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• 1. Introduction

  • Using This Book
  • Learning to Knap

• 2. Flintknapping: Basic Principles

  • Flintknapping
  • Conchoidal Fracture
  • Properties of Material
  • Flakes and Cores

• 3. A Brief History of Flintknapping

  • Prehistory of Stone Tools
  • Recent "Stone-Age" People
  • Modern Knapping
  • Further Readings
  • Other Resources: Finding Other Knappers

• 4. Raw Materials

  • Stone Quality
  • Stone Materials
  • Heat-Treating
  • Collecting Material: Ethical and Practical Considerations

• 5. Safety

  • Proper Technique
  • Eyes
  • Hands
  • Other Body Parts
  • Lungs
  • Waste Disposal
  • Benefits

• 6. Hard-Hammer Percussion

  • Material and Equipment
  • Percussion-Flaking Principles: An Experiment
  • Percussion Flaking
  • Platforms
  • The Face of the Core
  • Terminations
  • Curvature
  • Starting a Core
  • Summary: Nine Essentials
  • Examples

• 7. Pressure Flaking

  • Tools
  • Raw Material
  • First Principles
  • Working Position
  • Beginning
  • Platform Preparation
  • Thinning
  • Notching
  • Other Pressure-Flaking Techniques
  • Summary: Six Essentials
  • Application: Small Triangular Points from the Southwest
  • Pressure-Flaking Problems
  • Patterned Pressure Flaking

• 8. Soft-Hammer Percussion and Bifaces

  • Definitions
  • Tools
  • Beginning
  • Soft-Hammer Principles and Results
  • Biface Thinning Flakes
  • Fracture Theories
  • The Blow Platforms
  • Biface Stages
  • Knapping Strategy and Other Considerations
  • Example: A Basic Biface
  • Biface Problems: Prehistoric Mistakes
  • Summary

• 9. Blades and Fluting

  • Blades
  • Platforms
  • Holding
  • Punches
  • The Blow
  • Fluting
  • Example: Fluted Point

• 10. Using Stone Tools

  • Stone vs. Steel
  • Edges and Cutting
  • Making a Projectile Foreshaft
  • Going On

• 11. Archaeological Analysis of Stone Tools

  • Typology
  • Stone Tool Types and Change through Time
  • What People Did with Stones
  • Sources of Variation: Why Stone Tools Are Not All Alike
  • Analyzing Stone Tool Materials
  • Technology and What It Tells Us
  • Figuring Out Function
  • Questions of Style
  • Conclusions

• Appendix: Resources for Knappers
• References
• Index

What People are Saying About This

James C. Woods

... very attractive to readers interested in ancient crafts, survival skills, or the history of technology.... far superior to anything currently available.

Editorial Reviews

A mid-range user’s guide to flintknapping is long overdue. There have been some admirable attempts to produce such a volume, but these have been targeted at specific, fairly narrow audiences. Not so with Flintknapping.... [Whittaker’s] clear aim is to reach professional archaeologists as well as hobbyists. I believe he achieves this goal with incredible skill and humor.... I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in flintknapping.

— Plains Anthropologist

... very attractive to readers interested in ancient crafts, survival skills, or the history of technology.... far superior to anything currently available.

— James C. Woods, director, The Herrett Museum, College of Southern Idaho

This is the best, most thorough summary available on flaked stone technology. The book skillfully blends instruction on how to make stone tools with information on how to interpret flaked stone artifacts.

— Northern Arizona Archaeology Society Newsletter

From the Publisher