The Effects of Raw Material Variability and Heat Treatment on Flake Production and Use: A Controlled Experiment

在国家科学基金会的支持下，哈罗德·迪布尔博士将进行一系列与了解石器(石块)是如何制造直接相关的实验。虽然现代的打火工(那些复制石器的人)能够复制考古记录中发现的形式，但其中的大多数基本过程并没有被很好地理解。这些实验建立在同样由NSF资助的早期一系列实验的基础上，将扩展这些实验的结果，以调查原材料可能对石材制造和使用的基本方面产生的影响。需要测试的自变量包括：(A)史前人类使用的不同岩石类型；(B)对这些材料进行加热对其制造和使用性能的影响。要考察的两组主要因变量包括：(A)“可剥落性”(包括去除鳞片所需的作用力以及在相同条件下产生的鳞片大小和形状的变化程度以及可预测性)，以及(B)边缘锐度和耐用性(即使用石器进行切割和刮削等任务时的两个主要考虑因素)。这些实验的结果将直接涉及过去可能用于选择某些类型的岩石并通过热处理改变其性质的标准，用于制造和使用石器工具。石器构成了了解过去250万年人类史前大部分历史的主要来源，也是考古数据的主要来源。研究人员希望了解它们是如何制造的，要做到这一点，他们必须了解制造它们的原材料的性质。将要进行的研究的目标比了解特定技术或确定特定类型石材生产中的特定工艺要广泛得多。相反，目标是测试所有削刀者(史前和现代)用来控制薄片大小和形状的独立变量之间的特定关系。因此，它直接讲述了切割过程背后的基本过程，旨在让石器考古学家更好地了解这些独立变量如何影响薄片的形态。通过这种方式，这个实验的结果将与几乎所有产生岩屑组合的地理区域和时间段相关。这项实验也将成为宾夕法尼亚大学实验考古学本科课程的重点。这将使他们在实验设计和方法论方面获得第一手经验。与国际和平研究所进行的所有研究一样，将通过专门为此目的设计的网站(www.oldstoneage.com)向广大公众公布试验操作和结果。

With support from the National Science Foundation Dr. Harold Dibble will conduct a series of experiments directly relevant to the understanding of how stone tools (lithics) are made. While modern flintknappers (those who replicate stone tools) are able to reproduce forms found in the archaeological record, most of the fundamental processes involved are not well understood. These experiments, building on an earlier set of experiments also funded by NSF, will extend the results of those experiments to investigate the effects that raw materials may have on fundamental aspects of lithic manufacture and use. Among the independent variables to be tested are (a) different rock types that were used by prehistoric peoples and (b) how subjecting those materials to heating affects their properties both in terms of manufacture and use. The two major sets of dependent variables to be examined include (a) "flakeability" (including the amount of force required to remove flakes as well as the degree of variation -and thus predictability - of flake size and shape produced under identical conditions), and (b) edge sharpness and durability (i.e., two primary considerations for using stone tools for tasks such as cutting and scraping). The results of these experiments will directly address criteria that may have been used in the past for selecting certain kinds of rocks and altering their properties through heat treatment for the manufacture and use of stone tools. Stone tools constitute a principal source for understanding most of the last two and a half million years of human prehistory and constitute a prime source of archaeological data. Researchers wish to understand how they were manufactured and to do this they must understand the properties of the raw materials from which they are made.The research to be conducted has a goal that is much broader than understanding a particular technology or identifying specific processes in the production of particular lithic types. Rather, the goal is to test specific relationships among the independent variables used by all knappers (prehistoric and modern alike) to control the sizes and shapes of flakes. As such, it speaks directly to the fundamental processes underlying the knapping process and is intended to give lithic archaeologists a much better understanding of how these independent variables affect the morphology of flakes. In this way the results of this experiment will be relevant to virtually all geographic areas and temporal periods that yield lithic assemblages. This experiment will also form the focus of an undergraduate course at the University of Pennsylvania in experimental archaeology. This will give them first-hand experience in experimental design and methodology. As has been the case with all research done by the PI, the experimental operation and results will be made accessible to the larger public through a website designed specifically for this purpose (www.oldstoneage.com).