Analysis of chipped stone artifacts using scientific techniques
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In archaeology, lithic analysis is the analysis of stone tools and other chipped stone artifacts using basic scientific techniques. At its most basic level, lithic analyses involve an analysis of the artifact's morphology, the measurement of various physical attributes, and examining other visible features (such as noting the presence or absence of cortex, for example).
The term 'lithic analysis' can technically refer to the study of any anthropogenic (human-created) stone, but in its usual sense it is applied to archaeological material that was produced through lithic reduction (knapping) or ground stone. A thorough understanding of the lithic reduction and ground stone processes, in combination with the use of statistics, can allow the analyst to draw conclusions concerning the type of lithic manufacturing techniques used at a prehistoric archaeological site. For example, they can make certain equation between each the factors of flake to predict original shape.[1] These data can then be used to draw an understanding of socioeconomic and cultural organization.
The term knapped is synonymous with "chipped" or "struck", but is preferred by some analysts because it signifies intentionality and process. Ground stone generally refers to any tool made by a combination of flaking, pecking, pounding, grinding, drilling, and incising, and includes things such as mortars / metates, pestles (or manos), grinding slabs, hammerstones, grooved and perforated stones, axes, etc., which appear in all human cultures in some form. Among the tool types analyzed are projectile points, bifaces, unifaces, ground stone artifacts, and lithic reduction by-products (debitage) such as flakes and cores.
^Pelcin, Andrew W. (1998). "The Threshold Effect of Platform Width: A Reply to Davis and Shea". Journal of Archaeological Science. 25 (7): 615–620. Bibcode:1998JArSc..25..615P. doi:10.1006/jasc.1997.0253.
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many archaeological industries are identified almost entirely by the lithicanalysis of the precise style of their tools and the chaîne opératoire of the...
such prehistoric societies, and refer to the study of stone tools as lithicanalysis. Ethnoarchaeology has been a valuable research field in order to further...
diagnostics of date, rather than characterizing the people or the society. Lithicanalysis is a major and specialised form of archaeological investigation. It...
Lithic scatter consists primarily of lithic flakes and other stone tool use remnants. Scatter occurs in surface areas that have often been disturbed by...
In lithicanalysis (a subdivision of archaeology), an eraillure is a flake removed from a lithic flake's bulb of force, which is a lump left on the ventral...
process of lithic reduction – the production of stone tools and weapons by knapping stone. This assemblage may include the different kinds of lithic flakes...
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ISSN 0263-0338. Tryon, Christian A. (April 2006). ""Early" Middle Stone Age Lithic Technology of the Kapthurin Formation (Kenya)". Current Anthropology. 47...
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sub-disciplines characterized by a specific method or type of material (e.g., lithicanalysis, music, archaeobotany), geographical or chronological focus (e.g. Near...
the development of new methods of conservation Techniques such as lithicanalysis, archaeometallurgy, paleoethnobotany, palynology and zooarchaeology...
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robbing Ground-penetrating radar Harris matrix Law of superposition Lithicanalysis Post excavation Projectile point Radiocarbon dating Relationship Seriation...
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