What novice knappers have to learn to become expert stone toolmakers

The aim of this paper was to determine what technical gestures must be learned in order to produce stone tools. To identify these gestures, we compared the performance of expert knappers and complete novices. We hypothesised that the differences between novices and experts would indicate which technical gestures experts had learned to successfully produce stone tools. Participants were video recorded while attempting to produce a crude handaxe. The recordings were analysed according to ethological methods used to study animal and human behaviour. The knapping performance of each participant was segmented and scored into units in order to identify the technical gestures being used. The results showed considerable differences between experts and novices in three technical gestures: the type of percussion support, the position of the blank and the angle of blow. Therefore, these three technical gestures appear to be crucial in learning to knap stone at the level of bifacial stone toolmakers. By studying how modern knappers gradually master these three technical gestures we may begin to understand how stone knapping is acquired, how bifacial stone tools emerged and what cognitive challenges early handaxe makers had to face.     

An investigation of the fractal properties of flint microwear images

This paper reports on an investigation into the fractal dimensions of flint microwear images which has been carried out in an attempt to resolve the existing controversy over the possibility of identifying microwear types from visual inspection of high magnification images, and describes a new method for flint microwear image analysis based on fractal geometry. Fractal dimensions of surface images, which are known to relate well to human visual perception of roughness, have been computed for various types of microwear. No significant correlations have been found between the fractal properties of the digital flint images and the contacted materials.     

良渚文化石器装柄技术的重要物证

新石器时代多数石器需要安柄使用,但木柄之类的有机质遗存极难保存。由于南湖等地具备特殊的埋藏环境,良渚文化带柄石器的实物竟有成批出土。本文首次公布这些珍贵的装柄石器实物资料,并系统介绍了良渚文化带柄石器出土的历史和现状,对带柄石器的安装和使用进行了初步探讨,相信对良渚文化石器的研究能产生推动作用。     

Does Practice Make Perfect? Craft Expertise as a Factor in Aggrandizer Strategies

The focus of this article is on exploring craft expertise and its potential as a factor in aggrandizer strategies. It is argued that there are elements of natural aptitude which enabled certain individuals to excel at flintknapping, allowing them to create objects of exceptional size and beauty in acts of elaborate knapping. Practice alone will enable an individual to reach a certain level of proficiency, but only practice in combination with ability can result in world-class performance. If, as is argued, native ability in some domain is a rare commodity, then harnessing it and developing it through practice would provide an opportunity for a potential aggrandizer to control prestige goods and accrue social capital. In situations where raw material, knowledge, and know-how are ubiquitous, as may have been true for flint technology in southern Scandinavia during the Late Neolithic, this might be one of few means available for a would-be aggrandizer to control prestigious goods.     

Laboratory evidence of the use of metal tools at Machu Picchu (Peru) and environs

An interpretation of use-wear marks on metal artifacts is developed from the principles of metal cutting and brittle fracture and applied to surficial markings and microstructural damage on bronze tools from Machu Picchu and environs. Most of the tools have blunt edges, relatively low tin contents, and were not work hardened before use; they appear to have been designed for work that involved breaking chips from hard, brittle material. Use-wear marks on these tools are interpreted as due to sliding contacts and impacts with rock. One tool with a relatively sharp edge has a higher alloy content than those with blunt edges and has been work hardened; it appears to have been designed for cutting wood and use-wear markings suggest it was so used. A long bronze bar carries markings that suggest use by stonemasons. Many of the tools are broken and study of their microstructures shows that the bronze used has poor mechanical properties because of porosity and bands of sulphide inclusions.     

江汉洞庭地区商周青铜工具与相关问题的探索

本文论述了湘鄂两省区内出土的商周青铜工具,对宁乡出土青铜斧的功用、定名作了考察,并就殷商西周时期江汉洞庭地区是否大量使用青铜农具问题提出己见。     

关于旧石器时代石制工具定义的探讨

旧石器时代石制工具的判别应该以疤痕分析为基础;微痕分析是一种检验石制品的有效方法,但难以成为石器分类的基础。