EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATIONS ON SOME NON-OPTIMAL MATERIALS FROM SOUTHERN SOUTH AMERICA

Abstract

Historically, lithic analyses and studies were based on the attributes and characteristics of artifacts derived from flint and/or flint-like materials. However, during the last decades, emphasis has been put on another rocks used for manufacturing stones tools; among others, quartzite, quartz, and other rocks with diverse fractures.

Over the years, a number of experiments using varied flaking techniques and strategies were conducted in the Americas. In this endeavor, diverse non-flint-like materials were used to replicate varied core and bifacial reduction strategies. Among others, crystal quartz as well as varied acid and black volcanic rocks were flaked. The experimental observations allowed observing that several of these raw materials show subtle but different flaking qualities as well formal macroscopic attributes on the resulting products and by-products. Then, this paper presents and discusses some flaking qualities and attributes observed on some non-flint-like materials from South America.

Keywords:

• Experimental lithic technology
• Raw materials
• Flaking quality
• South America

Acknowledgments

My deepest gratitude goes to C. Rodríguez Rellán for his invitation to participate in the event that he organized and for having inspired me to write this article; to C. Prezzi, A. Rapalini, and H. Vizán for their kind help with some developed topics; and to M. de las M. Cuadrado Woroszylo, who was very helpful during the writing of this paper. All opinions expressed here are solely my own responsibility.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hugo G. Nami

Dr H. G. Nami is senior research at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is also associated researcher at the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in Wa. D.C. He is a former research fellow of Center for the Study of the Early Man (Orono, Maine), National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution, Wa. D.C.), Dumbarton Oaks (Harvard University, Wa. D.C.), and other institutions. He was granted by CONICET, Fulbright Commission, National Geographic Society, Wenner-Gren for Anthropological research, among others. Research interests include: hunter-gatherer archaeology, peopling of the New World, Experimental archaeology, archaeological theory, epistemology, paleomagnetism.

Correspondence to: Hugo G. Nami, CONICET-IGEBA, Dpto. Ciencias Geológicas, FCEN, UBA. Ciudad Universitaria, Pab. II, (C1428EHA), CABA, Argentina. Email: [email protected]