When finding and selecting flint, discard any whole boulders with no bulges or nodules on them, as they will be very difficult to get into. Putting glass aside, this guide will assume you are using flint (which will sometimes be referred to as ‘rock’ or stone’) because it is the best and most common knapping material. In a survival situation, being able to knap arrowheads and knives from broken bottles may even be more appropriate or useful than flint if you are in an urban area. This is because glass is conchoidal, like Flint, Chert, Obsidian and many other rocks, and knappers often use glass for practice, especially as they are first learning, because it is free and easily available. Think of the waves and arcs in the edges of broken glass and you’ll understand. The geology is interesting but not very useful here, essentially a rock is conchoidal if it breaks on a certain way struck. In fact, any stone can be knapped since any stone can be broken down into small parts and used as simple tools, but those which can be shaped best are conchoidal rocks. Flint with significant impurities is called Chert and can make beautiful arrowheads and knives just like any other knappable stone. It is worth knowing from the start that flint is not the only knappable material. Until then remember “Culture is Everywhere”.Why Learn Knapping? Flint (and not flint) Join me in the next blog as we explore the history of the Native American cultures of the Southeast. Thank you for your interest and support for GRP. Green River Preserve is a perfect place to continue exploring the cultures and daily life of the ancient Native Americans of the Southeast. We may never know.Ĭontinuing archaeological investigations and excavations will help to unravel the history of the ancient cultures of the past. These changes in styles and types of points show changes in circumstances for the people living at that time possibly changes in resources, environmental changes, or societal changes. The typology of the spearpoints of the Southeast is the best diagnostic archaeologists have in determining the date of occupation for a Native American site. There are obvious changes in form and function of spearpoints throughout the different time periods in history. As the process of creating points and tools from stone progressed, humans had a greater chance of survival by providing protection and a means of procuring game for sustenance, clothing, shoes, and shelter. Both rock quarries are less than a mile from base camp.įlintknapping was the first and maybe the most significant technology developed by humans. One quarry produces a clear and milky quartz and the other produces a metamorphic quartzite. Green River Preserve has 2 quarry sites, where Native Americans collected the core stones to make their points and tools. Many types of stone can be used for flintknapping including quartzite, chert, basalt, flint, rhyolite, and obsidian. The “flakes”(called lithics in Archaeology) produced by flintknapping have certain characteristics that identify them as a manmade rock such as a striking platform, a bulb of percussion, a smooth and rippled side, and negative flake scars. The pressure flakes are removed to sharpen the edges and thin a tool. Using a smaller tool such as an antler or bone, pressed along the edge of a tool will force off a small flake. Flintknapping is a reduction process, removing many flakes from the core stone. The force of the percussion causes a flake of stone to peel off the core rock. A hammer stone is used to hit a core stone. Flintknapping is the art and skill of creating tools and points out of stone. The first human technology was flintknapping, beginning over 2.5 million years ago. Advances in technology through the ages have increased human chances of survival through the millennia.
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