Publication Date:
2010-10-30
Description:
Pressure flaking has been considered to be an Upper Paleolithic innovation dating to ~20,000 years ago (20 ka). Replication experiments show that pressure flaking best explains the morphology of lithic artifacts recovered from the ~75-ka Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa. The technique was used during the final shaping of Still Bay bifacial points made on heat-treated silcrete. Application of this innovative technique allowed for a high degree of control during the detachment of individual flakes, resulting in thinner, narrower, and sharper tips on bifacial points. This technology may have been first invented and used sporadically in Africa before its later widespread adoption.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Mourre, Vincent -- Villa, Paola -- Henshilwood, Christopher S -- 249587/European Research Council/International -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2010 Oct 29;330(6004):659-62. doi: 10.1126/science.1195550.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉INRAP Mediterranee, 561 rue Etienne Lenoir-KM Delta, 30900 Nimes, France.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21030655" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
*Archaeology
;
History, Ancient
;
Hot Temperature
;
Humans
;
Pressure
;
South Africa
;
Technology/*history
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
Permalink