Exercise 3 Extended
Archaeology Lab   ANTL 207

September 17, 2007
Lithic Debitage

Exercise 3 extended is designed for you to examine and record attributes of lithic debitage.  Debitage can be defined as the debris resulting from the manufacture of chipped or flaked stone artifacts.  You will be recording as much information as you can on each flake using a separate piece of paper for each.

You are to select any five lithic flakes from the Lithics Lab.
  Choose different sized flakes

1).  Assign a number to each of your flakes and draw each.  Examining one flake at a time you are to create as detailed a drawing as possible.  Make the drawing like the one shown in the lower right corner of your handout entitled “Anatomy of a Flake.”  Draw one side then draw the opposite side.  Also, draw a profile of your flake (I’d suggest you trace it as best you can!).  Label each side ‘dorsal’ or ‘ventral.’  As always, use a pencil for your drawings and keep it sharpened.  Start by tracing the outline of each flake.  Next, begin drawing all of the flake scars you see – ALL of them – the major and minor ones as well.  See how many flake scars you can draw.  Use the hand lenses and magnifying glasses to help you pick out the flake scars.

2).  Label all of the various parts of each flake as shown in the class handout you were given last week “Anatomy of a Flake.”  If you can’t define each part why not?  Is a striking platform or bulb of percussion not present?  Is your flake weathered?  How well can you see the different parts of your flake?  Do you really have a flake or is it something else?

3).  Identify your flake.  Is it a percussion or a pressure flake?  If it’s a percussion flake is it a primary, secondary or tertiary flake?  Might it be a notching flake?  There are several ways you can determine what general kind of flake you’ve got.  A first step is to look for the presence or absence of cortex.  If it’s got cortex you know you’ve got a primary percussion flake.  If cortex is absent then that tells you something, too.  Take a look at the different resources available in the Lithics Lab to help you out on this.  One set of resources are the glass cases entitled “Percussion Biface Reduction Stages” and “Projectile point Reduction Sequence.”  Another good resource is the black plastic box labelled “Flake Identification Cards.”  Take these cards out and look closely at the examples attached to each card.

4).  Gather quantitative data on each of your flakes.  Using the calipers in the Lab take maximum length, width and thickness measurements on each flake.  Show on your drawings where these measurements were taken (see drawing on Lab 3 Lithic Projectile Point handout).  Is there a striking platform?  Can you get some dimensions on it?  Are there any other dimensions worth recording?  Why do you think so?

5).  Using what you learned from Lab Exercise 2 (“What is that?”) what kinds of qualitative data can you get on each of your flakes?  Remember to use your keen powers of observation!  It’s easy to note things like color, texture, etc. but what other things can do you observe?  Make note of these!

6).  Look at the edges of each of your flakes very closely.  Make note of any small flake scars or scratches or residue (if you’re really lucky) that are present on the edges.  The condition of the edges of a flake can potentially tell you something about it’s use-life, specifically whether it was utilized or not.  So grab a hand lens and examine the flake edges closely.  I’d suggest going outside to do this, where you’ll have very bright light.  Record your observations about the edges of your flakes.  Care to speculate if any have been utilized or not?  Take a look at another resource in the Lithics Lab – the Utilized flake set.  This will give you an idea of how your flakes might have been used.  But to determine exactly how your flakes were used you’d need to examine each under a microscope – that’s for another day!

If you finish this exercise before class is over at 3:15 pm then help someone out by offering your ideas/information on Points 3-6 above.  Help them identify the flake type, measure quantitative data and qualitative info.