A Tale of Two Flint-Knappers: Implications for Lithic Debitage Studies in Northeastern North America

Abstract

Archaeological survey at Moosehead Lake, Maine, uncovered prehistoric sites containing dense concentrations of lithic debitage resulting from biface production. Most of the stone used for tool manufacture was obtained from felsite outcrops on Mt. Kineo, which is located on a peninsula in the lake. Debitage samples from five of these sites were selected to investigate chipped stone tool manufacture. Review of the literature on debitage analysis and biface production experiments performed by the author suggests that lithic debitage striking platforms preserve much Information about stone tool production technology and perhaps cultural choice. Attributes that were easily recognizable and consistently identifìable and showed variability in the lithic debitage assemblages included whether platforms were fiat or faceted, whetber platforms were ground or not ground, and platform length and width measurements. Experimental production of bifaces in which debitage was saved at different stages demonstrated that earlier and later stages of biface manufacture could be distinguished using striking platform attributes. Analysis of debitage samples from the Moosehead Lake sites shows that most later stages of biface production occurred away from the quarry source, that biface production may have exhibited a high degree of skill or control across space and through time, and that cultural afßliation of debitage assemblages may be identifìable even when culturally diagnostic artifact forms are not present.