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Flintknapping Glossary of Terms

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JackCrafty:
Corrections:

Collateral Flake Pattern - Also: Collateral Flaking.  A series of flake scars that run at roughly 90deg to the centerline, from each side, and meeting somewhere in the middle.

Diagonal Flake Pattern - Also: Diagonal Flaking, Oblique Flake Pattern, Oblique Flaking.  A series of flake scars that run at roughly 30° to 45° to the centerline, from each side, and meeting somewhere in the middle.  This may or may not create a median ridge on a stone tool.


Expanded Definitions:

Complex - An assemblage, belonging to a material culture, that regularly appears together in two or more sites within a phase (or horizon).  Also, this can be a tool technology that originates from, and remains within, one social culture.

Incipient Fracture - Also: Incipient Cone, Wedge.  A crack that has only partially penetrated into the core material.  These cracks can be created in a variety of ways but most often occur during percussion techniques.  Not to be confused with crazing or cracks caused by temperature changes.

Indirect Percussion - Placing pointed object (punch) on the core and striking it with a mallet to cause a fracture or to detach a flake.  A hammerstone can be used in place of the mallet, if desired.  Pressure can also be added to the punch before striking it (which is sometimes called "loading up").

Fracture Plane - Also:  Fracture Wave.  The surface created by a crack in a brittle material.  When this surface is exposed, it is often wavy and contains recognizable features like the bulb of force, for example.

Parallel Flake Pattern - Also: Parallel Flaking.  A series of relatively narrow flake scars that run close together and usually overlap.


New Terms:

Accidental Flaking - Flaking that has yielded an undesired result that is usually not beneficial.  Also, the flake scar may or may not show evidence that the flake was removed accidentally or in an unintended manner.  Artifacts that contain accidental flaking may represent either lack of skill and/or intentional lack of repair flaking.

Flake Scar Study - A type of tool surface analysis that focusses on the characteristics of flake scars (sometimes called "signatures") to determine the tool(s) and or method(s) of flake removal.

Horizon - A tool technology that is shared by two or more social or material cultures.

Natural Flaking - Flakes or flake scars caused by natural forces.

Opportunistic Flaking - Also:  Opportunistic Flake Removal.  Flaking that utilizes platforms that have not been intentionally isolated or individually refined in some way.  Usually performed on a large portion of an edge that has been smoothed, abraded, battered, or sheared in one action.  However, it can also be performed on unprepared edges or by utilizing fracture surfaces caused by natural forces.

Pass - Also:  Set.  The act of removing several flakes on one face, without interruption, and performed by striking several platforms along an entire edge that is usually prepared in advance.  A pass can be done with pressure or percussion and either randomly or with an orderly sequence.  As a side note, this is the typical method of flake removal, for all types of points, by the vast majority of modern knappers.

Repair Flaking - Flaking done for no other reason than to remove a flaw caused by a previous flake.  Also, the flake scar may or may not show evidence that the flake was removed for the purpose of eliminating a flaw.

Sequential Flaking - Also:  Serial Flaking.  A flake pattern created by removing flakes in sequence, with an intentionally minimized or reduced space in between flakes, for the purpose of thinning, retouching, re-sharpening, beveling, removing blades, and/or creating a cosmetically pleasing effect.  Sometimes the flakes overlap and utilize the arris created by the previous flake but this is not always the case.

JackCrafty:
New Terms:

Quarry - A place where lithic material for tools has been removed from it's natural source.  The material may have been collected from the surface and/or mined.

Quarry Blank - A piece of lithic material that has been roughly shaped by the removal of one or more flakes and then transported away from it's natural source so that it can be worked further elsewhere.


Expanded Definitions:

Blank - Also:  Trade Blank, Cache Blade.  A preform, biface, or workpiece that is either set aside or carried until the owner wishes to finish it or trade it for something else.  The act of creating a blank means that there is an intentional pause in the reduction sequence.  All edges are knapped and cortex is minimal or not present.

Chippintuff:
Patrick, this could be (is) a book. Thanks for all the work you do for the rest of us.

WA

Zuma:
A labor of LOVE.
Thank you Patrick
Zuma

JackCrafty:
 ;D

Thanks, and you're welcome.  Is it still considered a labor of love if you're addicted to the thing?

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