Revisiting the “Quartz Problem” in Lithic Studies: A Review and New, Open-access, Experimental Dataset

ABSTRACT

Quartz artefacts are common components of flaked stone assemblages worldwide. However, flaked quartz can appear similar to quartz fractured by natural and other (non-flaking) cultural processes. Despite attempts to address this “quartz problem”, the analysis and interpretation of flaked quartz assemblages remain problematic. Here we present a review of literature investigating the quartz problem, and a case study that examines an experimentally flaked assemblage – including the presence of “markers” widely reported to be diagnostic of knapped quartz. The results suggest that freehand knapping of a vein quartz block will produce mostly shatter and small, undiagnostic pieces with few artifacts exhibiting previously suggested markers. An integrated approach, considering physical features of individual quartz pieces, along with assemblage composition, characteristics and context more broadly, is therefore crucial. The dataset created for this study is freely available, providing the first example of an open-access dataset to aid study of flaked quartz assemblages worldwide.

KEYWORDS:

• Quartz
• lithics
• stone technology
• knapping
• experimental archaeology
• open access

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Department of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, for providing the equipment and facilities used in the experiments. Toby Billing provided the quartz used in this study. We thank Jess Pisana for helping us count the quartz artifacts. Thank you to Nicola Stern for her teaching and advice about flaked stone artifacts over many years. We thank the First Peoples of Australia on whose Country we have investigated flaked quartz artifact assemblages.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The dataset used for this study is freely available via Open Science Framework http://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/N8CWR.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Caroline Spry

Dr Caroline Spry is an Adjunct Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology and History at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, where she has also been a Lecturer, Tutor and Research Assistant. Caroline is Senior Heritage Advisor/Archaeologist at Wurundjeri Corporation, an Aboriginal organization appointed under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 (Vic.) to manage Aboriginal cultural heritage in greater Melbourne. She is also Co-chair of National Archaeology Week in Australia. Caroline completed her PhD on late Pleistocene and early Holocene stone tool technology at Lake Mungo in the Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area. She is a specialist in lithics, refitting/conjoin analysis, and Aboriginal culturally modified trees. Caroline has presented at international conferences and published extensively, including in The Holocene, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Journal of Lithic Studies, Australian Archaeology, Historical Records of Australian Science, and The Conversation. Caroline’s Twitter handle is @carolinedigs.

Rebekah Kurpiel

Dr Rebekah Kurpiel is the Director of La Trobe Archaeology Research Partnerships at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. Her research interests include stone tool technology and developing methods and methodologies for sourcing stone and ochre artifacts to investigate past trade and transport patterns, as well as the theory and practice of cultural heritage management. Rebekah has active research projects in Australia and South Africa, including work funded by the Australian Research Council, and is a committee member of the Australasian Research Cluster for Archaeological Science. Rebekah’s Twitter handle is @ArchPartnersLTU.

Elizabeth Foley

Elizabeth Foley is an archaeologist based in Melbourne, Australia who specializes in the stone technology and landscape archaeology of Australia’s First Nations people. She has over ten years’ experience working in the southeast of the continent in a variety of contexts including research, teaching, heritage management and government. She is a co-editor of the annual publication Excavations, Surveys and Heritage Management in Victoria and recently submitted her PhD thesis to La Trobe University titled The Cultural Landscape at Lake Mungo during the Last Glacial Maximum.

Paul Penzo-Kajewski

Paul Penzo-Kajewski has over 20 years’ experience working as an archaeologist in Australia and the United Kingdom. After completing undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the University of Queensland he worked for the University of Queensland Archaeology Services Unit. Paul also spent four years working throughout the United Kingdom on Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Romano British, Medieval and Industrial archaeological sites mainly for Northamptonshire County Council and Museum of London Archaeology Services. He is currently working at La Trobe University as the archaeology Technical Officer supporting an extensive research field work program in many different areas across Australia and the world.