Teaching Complex Flint Knapping Strategies in the Classroom Using “Potato Knapping”

ABSTRACT

Stone suitable for flint knapping is fine-grained and isotropic, sharp, and characteristically prone to production failures in the hands of novicesThis poses significant problems for university teachers trying to instruct novices in the fundamentals of stone working in limited time during classroom practicals where health and safety concerns must be taken seriously. In this paper I outline a cheap and successful approach to teaching knapping using potatoes—“potato knapping”—adopted in several of my courses. This approach allows undergraduates to acquire working knowledge of complex reduction sequences with low risk of self-injury and without the need for any prior skill or training in knapping. This technique is employed successfully to teach complex tasks, such as Levallois flaking, in short practicals, as well as to test various hypotheses and illustrate important concepts in classroom settings. Potato knapping as a research medium also has much potential to answer fundamental anthropological questions, as illustrated by a case study in cultural transmission.

KEYWORDS:

• Complex knapping
• teaching
• hands-on learning
• potato knapping
• transmission theory
• simulation

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Ceri Shipton and Antoine Muller for helpful comments on a draft of this paper. I would also like to thank the School of Social Science for funding the lithics practicals.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Chris Clarkson is an archaeologist and a specialist in lithic technology and Paleolithic archaeology.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The University of Queensland.