1994 La produccion litica durante fases Calcoliticas: analisisdel conjunto del yacimiento campaniforme del Campo de Futbol (Getafe, Madrid). In C. Blasco (ed.) El Horizonte Campaniforme de la region de Madrid en el Centenario de Ciempozuelos, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.
Bocquet, A.
1980 Le microdenticule, un outil mat connu. Bulletin de la Societe Prehistorique Francalse 3, 76-85.
Curwen, E.C.
1930 Prehistoric flint sickles. Antiquity 4, 179-186.
Fortea, J. et at.
1987 La industria litica tallada del neolitico antiguo en la vertiente mediterranea de la Peninsula Iberica. Lucentum VI, 7-22.
Gijn, A.L.
1992 The interpretation of 'sickles': a cautionary tale. In: P.Anderson (ed.) Prehistoire sw I'Agriculture. Nouvelles Approches Experimen-tales Ethnographiques. (Paris: Monographie du CRA. Editions du CNRS), 363-372.
Juel Jensen, H.
1993 Flint tools and plant working; Hidden traces of stone age technology. Aarhus Univer sity Press (Denmark).
Spurret, F.
1892 Notes on early sickles. Archaeological Journal 49, 53-69.
Steenberg, A.
1943 Ancient harvesting implements. (Kobenhavn: Nationalmuseets Skrifter, Arkaeologisk-Historik Raekke I).
* * *
KNAPPING ILLUSTRATED
Text and Illustrations By Charles Spear
* * *
I am a knapper and author of The Illustrated Flintknapper. Recently, I thought: “What if I couldn't order that nice Texas and Missouri flint, do I know enough to use the ‘crud’around here?”
So I will give you my experience blow by blow. First, I found a stream near home and searched out some quartzite and granite and basalt. They ranged from 2" - 4" in diameter or length. They were my first tool kit. I chose them on the “soundness” of the material for bashing.
Next, I began to pick up rocks that looked like they had potential to be knapped, around here that's basalt (fine grained) and creek chert. I found a nice cobble from a spillway, split by concussion on the stream bed. Here's where it gets critical. I needed a knife more than an axe so I had to do more than knap one end.
I began to hit the edge of the stone on the “x”mark then reversed the stone to the other side “x2” then reversed the stone again and hit “x3” continuing to repeat hitting and reversing until I had a wavy edge around the center of the stone. I am holding the one “knife” chert in my left hand and striking downwards with my right hand and the 3" egg hammerstone. (See Fig. 1) After I had created a wavy edge around the stone I had what is called a rough bifacepreform.
Next, I ground the preforms edge on an abrasive piece of sandstone (any gritty stone will do.) From this point I needed to center the way the centerline ran around the stone. ‘A’and ‘B’are the two extremes on the biface's edge. On ‘A’ I knocked off the shaded area as well as on ‘B’. This more of less evened up the centerline of the biface preform.
Figure 1
This preform's edge is somewhat sharp now and I could quit here but the stone was still a littlebulky.
Now I needed another tool and there weren't any deer around and it was already spring, alas no antlers for billets. However, I do know osage orange is very dense and I knew where a tree was that had died a year ago. When I found the hedgeapple tree I removed a limb about 1 1/ 2" in. diameter and cut a groove around the parts I wanted. I used my preform to groove the branch.
I was then able to snap off the center 14" piece for my billet. I scraped the bark off the branch and ground one end on a large gritty rock near the tree. Now I could complete my “knife”preform. Holding the biface like I held it in Diagram 1 I hit the centerline in 3 well placed blows removing flakes on the underside of my knife.
I now could sharpen this thinned blade by pushing off flakes at ‘A’and ‘B’using a smaller osage branch 1/2" diameter ground to a dull point. I knew I would need this later. So you see knowing stuff sure helps.
George Stewart's "Hands-free Vice"
Split a sturdy stick down about 10 inches, and bind so it won't split further. Small leather pads can be added to the jaws created by the split (see top of photo below). Now, drive the stick into the ground.
A thin wedge (in George's right hand) is placed into the split to hold the jaws open until your work (anarrow, atlatl, or other project to be worked) is positioned into the open jaws. The wedge hangs from the cord while not in place.
The antler "wrench" is pulled down, tightening the leather binding around the split and clamping the work in place. As the antler is torqued downward, the cord attached to the end of the antler is slid down the stick and friction holds tension on the leather binding.
George pulls the wedge out of the split and prepares to crank the wrench downward, holding the arrow in place. Hands are now free to do work requiring two hands.
* * *
"George Stewart's "First Switch-blade Knife"
So simple I Split a handle (bone, antler, horn) and bind the butt ends togther. The blade is slid point-first into the handle and bound in place when not in use. When needed the handle is unbound, the blade turned around and positioned as desired. The blade is compression hafted into the handle with a few quick and simple wraps of cord.
To sharpen or replace a blade that is more disposable than a good handle, simply release the compression wraps and start again.
Variations on a theme. L-R. Handles of split bone, pronghorn, and antler.
A Basketmaker II Knife System
Text and Illustrations By David Holladay
* * *
This endeavor started out about a year ago as a project to replicate a knife found in Sand Dune Cave, on display at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, AZ and three similar knives found at Edge of the Cedars in Blanding, UT and it has continued into the present. The materials and design of these knives were common enough for me to want to find out why they were made the way they were. Rather than make an assumption about the design of the knives, hafts and handles, I decided to make the knife with all stone tool technology, which would place automatic limits on how I could work and also make a difference on what the outcome would be. . . I then began using them for daily tasks.
First I made blades that were similar in thickness, width and materials to the museum examples. Then I made the handles. In making a handle, which is about as wide as the base of the blade (Fig. 1), my only limitations were locating accurate materials and my lack of knowledge about the original method of manufacture. From there I entered the void. I used the unhafted blade to make the notch. I was glad to find that the handles of the Basketmaker originals were all made from light, soft woods - agave stalk (Agave spp.), sunflower stem (Helianthus spp.), Cottonwood root (Populus spp.). I chose cottonwood root, the hardest of the three, to make the handles on my knives. I noticed that one of the “old” handles had a hole drilled in the middle with a fragment of string still in it. When I saw it several questions immediately came to mind . . . Why is the hole in the middle? How long was that buckskin cord before it rotted off? Isn't the blade kind of small? Was it a neck knife? Did they slip the string over their heads for safe, accessible keeping? Why such soft handle materials? I liked what I saw but I didn't know why.
I went back to Boulder, UT and started making, wearing and using the “Sand Dune Cave” style neck knife. I got poked in the chest several times due to some strange dynamic that I was sure had to do with the hole being more to the center of gravity, so I stopped hanging it around my neck. As I thought on it for the next few months, lots of ideas came to me on how to use and carry this style of knife. In the mean time I kept them in my shirt pocket.
Prior to seeing this design, I was always knapping out longer, thicker blades which I used unhafted and then disposed of, leaving me free to carry something else or nothing at all. Later, I began keeping especially well made blades, modifying them as needed. They gave me more cutting edge, better grip, and were excellent for wood working, dr
illing, scoring, splitting, chopping, skinning and digging and didn't snap off while I was sliding down talus slopes or climbing trees and rocks. They cut excellent notches in fire boards and all in all seemed like a caveman's best friend. But, this winter my wife and I butchered a lot of sheep, cattle, deer and elk and we found that an unhafted knife was much harder to hold onto without cutting yourself. We ended up hurting our palms and forefingers. The handheld blades don't feel sharp for the first few minutes of use but after a while our hands would become tender unless we dulled the grip side of our knife or wrapped it with leather. So, when my wife and I were butchering and jerking out a steer one day we switched over to the “new” kind and were pleased to find out after 45 minutes of fast cutting with our “Sand Dune Cave” knives that our hands and knives were in great shape. In fact, we did it again the next week when a perfectly healthy steer ate itself to death on too much good hay. The learning continued......
Figure 1. Basketmaker II style knife made by David Holladay from Cottonwood root, Yucca cordage, and blade made from heat-treated yellow Hogsback jasper. Reduced 78%
* * *
Here are some pros and cons. If you
uncover more, please send me a note in
the next Bulletin.
Pros
Super easy working access
Easy to hold
Easy to make and repair
Super light Easy to keep track of
Helps keep hands out of meat
Material efficient
. Minimizes blade breakage
They look "cool"
Cons
Limited field use
Doesn't take rough treatment in use
Needs extra protection in rough travel
* * *
I tried to use my “Sand Dune Cave” hatted knife to do wood working like cutting notches in a fire board or harvesting willows. It worked great as long as I depended on a fast-light sawing action rather than hard, pressure slicing. When I did the latter, the dung and pine pitch glue holding the blade gave way, and the blade broke off part of the wooden handle.
Then I made some handles of bone and some like the Iceman’s knife, with hardwood handles of mesquite (Prosopis spp.) and cat claw (Acacia greggii). They were great for skinning but were much heavier to carry around. They looked good but when used incorrectly the blades snapped off at the haft. Then I made some handles out of elk rib. They were easy to haft, light and the pitch and bone broke out rather than snapping the blade when misused — and they looked real good! But that wasn't what I saw behind the glass. The Basketmaker people used light, pithy woods. So I went back to their style and obsessed about stone age life some more.
I learned that if you haft stone blades in a rigid, durable handle and put the wrong kind of action on the knife (torque the blade) you could easily “snap the rock”. But, if you mount one into a softwood handle that provides sufficient resistance to apply good cutting pressure and is strong enough to do the job (which I feel this style of hafted blade was meant to do...which is cut flesh) the handle breaks out before the blade snaps when used incorrectly. If I was using my knife wrong I wouldn't loose my blade which can take a long time to produce. That's an advantage! Especially if thought of in today's cutting edge scenario (steel and lasers). Handles were expendable, blades weren't!
I began thinking about the terrain where the “Sand Dune Cave” knives were found (the Colorado Plateau desert) on the Navajo Reservation, where you have lots of sandstone and sand, but not much good rock for making stone blades. Good rock had to be brought in. Good knapping materials are not always available., .even in the best locations they can be frozen in the earth or hidden beneath the snow, or it can be night time and your whole world is only as big as the glow of your campfire and you aren't finished butchering.. And I suppose the Paleo people had thousands of years to pick over all of the best materials, so surface gathering has been tougher ever since.
I like to imagine. I imagined living in Sand Dune Cave or some other area where good rock was hard to find and thought to myself that if the beautifully made, imported, wide, thin, long stone knife I owned broke I would save the pieces, rework them, and haft them. So I did just that. I found out that a small blade could butcher out a huge animal if I could get a grip on it (the animal and the blade). One can take total advantage of what materials he has and turn them into a knife he can work with. With a small hand-held blade you can't get enough power behind it to do a lot of work. But if you add a handle to it, and if you can get the blade into the handle far enough to make a strong haft, you get a mechanical advantage. That small blade becomes a very powerful ripping tool. You also create a material advantage— every little piece can be hafted. Thus the “Basketmaker” system extends the blade life expectancy, is super light, and helps modify, and utilize marginal materials. Good idea!
* * *
Here's How
If you want to feel what I'm talking about, let's make one,
and then you can get behind the wield of your very own
Basketmaker II Sand Dune Cave Self-Accessing Model AD 1-500, 2000BP knife.
* * *
I was still curious about the hole in center of the handle, so I made a section of cord from yucca fiber, but remembering my first experience I knew I didn't want it to be long enough to go around my neck. I thought about trying one that was shorter. One I could hang on a tree branch or go around my wrist. For years I had been drilling holes in the end of my knife handles to put thongs through so that I wouldn't drop my knife onto the ground if it slipped out of my hand. And besides, it looks cool...it gives you something else to do to your knife while resting in the shade...drill, polish, paint, sculpt, rub in some wax or fat, fiddle, fiddle, fiddle. At the time I though maybe that was a good enough reason for the hole. I didn't have enough material to make a long-thick yucca loop, so I made a short one and threaded it through the hole and put it around my wrist. I wore it there while I worked at doing something else but the handle kept poking me in the wrist....the loop was too small. So, I made another handle with the hole near the end, like I've always done, and wore it like that, still on my wrist. It felt better, but that wasn't what I had seen in the museum. So then I made a slightly longer cord and tried the hole in the middle again. I began working on something else and forgot about the knife being on my wrist. While I worked I would occasionally put my hand down and the knife would be right there...it would literally fall into my palm. Each time I put my arm down, without even thinking about it (which is when I am at my smartest) the knife would be there, ready to use. I could use my hands, drop my arm or hand down and the knife handle went right into my palm. I got chills!! That hole in the middle helped facilitate control of the knife when it wasn't being used and then because of its location in the handle, it swung the handle directly into my grip when I wanted it. This would be great for skinning an animal in the snow or sand or deep grass or mud. When you need your fingers free to pull back a hide, push open a rib cage or grope for some entrails, you don't want to lay your tool down where it could get buried, lost, muddy or sandy. No matter how busy I was, my knife was always available and my fingers were free at an instant for some other task by just letting go. But, then as if by magic, my knife was “at hand.”
In closing, the Sand Dune Cave knife uses a hafting system specific to this area. My article is not an explanation or recommendation for all uses or an argument against alternative hafting methods and materials. Rather, it is a record of my experience with some thoughts and opinions attached. The original specimens, dated at 1-500 AD, were found intact in a dry cave. This type of knife needed to be tested in a real use situation to determine what the advantages and disadvantages of the design might be. I'm still working and having fun with it. I trust you might also.
* * *
DRILLING STONE
By Larry Kinsella
* * *
The most common use of stone drilling in my area, the Midwest, is the manufacture of bannerstone
s (atlatl weights). Many different types of stone, from soapstone to quartzite, are used for bannerstones but banded slate seems to dominate. Banded slate is beautiful and strong, yet soft enough to drill. The hole in bannerstone is roughly 7/16 inch (12 mm) in diameter and allowing the atlatl sections to pass through the hole. It is possible that the bannerstone is used to join different sections of an atlatl together as well (i.e. wood handle to an antler hook etc.). This area of study is just one that needs more experimentation.
The stone slab, core and drill,
To drill a stone the ancient way, a piece of cane is used in conjunction with an abrasive to slowly cut a hole through the stone. A by-product of stone drilling is a cylindrical “core” which survives the drilling process by remaining inside the cane drill. These are found archaeologically and look exactly like modern reproductions.
Steps to Stone Drilling
1. Cane Selection and Straightening - The selection of a cane drill is crucial to stone drilling because it will become a tool you will use for many hours. Choose a piece of cane with as much length between the "knuckles" as possible so you have as few “knuckles” as possible to grind off later. Straighten the cane by applying heat where the cane is to be straightened. Heat until the cane “sweats”, straighten by bending, then cool the area as soon as possible. I use a damp cloth. After the cane is straightened, scrape and grind off the "knuckles" until smooth. Sometimes, they take a lot of grinding, so I always straighten before grinding to prevent snapping the cane during straightening. The tool should be smooth to prevent abuse to your hands while drilling.
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