A QUALITATIVE GUIDE TO RECOGNIZE BIPOLAR KNAPPING FOR FLINT AND QUARTZ

Abstract

This paper presents a list of macroscopic characteristics for recognizing pieces resulting from bipolar knapping. I performed specific experiments in fine-grained flint and in quartz. I describe the main characteristics of bipolar knapping in a qualitative manner and discuss the usefulness and limitations of this qualitative methodology for these two types of rocks.

Cet article présente une liste de caractéristiques macroscopiques servant à identifier les pièces lithiques issues de la taille sur enclume. J'ai conduit une série d'expériences sur silex à grain fin et sur quartz. Je décris les principales caractéristiques de la taille sur enclume de manière qualitative et discute de l'utilité et des limitations présentées par cette approche pour ces deux types de matières premières.

Keywords:

• Bipolar knapping
• Flint
• Quartz
• Splintered piece
• Pièce esquillée
• Knapping method

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to Justin Pargeter and Hilary Duke who kindly and enthusiastically invited me to Austin and New York on April 2014; and encouraged me to write this synthesis. I also wish to thank Prof. Lyn Wadley for helpful comments and for the English revision. Two anonymous reviewers provided valuable comments for improving this article. Arturo de Lombera Hermida kindly provided me with very useful bibliography. The National Research Foundation of South Africa and the University of the Witwatersrand gave funding for the research of this paper. The support of the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences (CoE-Pal) towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the author.

Notes

1 Intermediate piece is used in some of the literature to name these types of pieces, probably because of a direct translation from French studies. I have chosen to use this terminology because it includes the use of wedges and chisels and it is not only restricted to wedges. Subsequently in the paper, when I only refer to wedges, I will specify this.

2 Sibudu is a South African site located approximately 40-km north of Durban, and about 15-km inland of the Indian Ocean. This site is one of the main references for Southern Africa Middle Stone Age archaeology. Howiesons Poort is a techno-complex of the Middle Stone Age, characterized typologically by backed pieces (Henshilwood 2012). Jacobs et al. (2008) calculated single-grain optically stimulated luminescence ages for the Howiesons Poort at Apollo 11, Klasies River, Melikane, Klein Kliphuis, Rose Cottage Cave and Sibudu and suggested that it spanned not more than about 5000 years, ending at about 62 ka. In 2013 de la Peña, Wadley, and Lombard published the first technological description of an assemblage of Howiesons Poort bifacial pieces mainly made on quartz.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paloma de la Peña

Paloma de la Peña is an archaeologist specialized in Prehistory. She is currently working in Middle Stone Age lithic technology of Southern Africa and Experimental Archaeology.