Provider: Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic

TY  - JOUR
JO  - Anthropologie (Brno)
TI  - Blank Length Reconstruction on the Base of Circular Segment Method – Core Refitting Case Study
AU  - Petr Neruda
Y1  - 2015
VL  - 53
IS  - 3
PB  - Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic
SN  - 0323-1119
SP  - 531
EP  - 545
KW  - Flake scars – Hard hammers – Circular segment method – Core volume reconstruction – Refittings
of lithics
N2  - 
N2  - The "life" of a lithic artefact stays recorded in the palimpsest of flake scars on the surface of the retrieved
object. Especially on cores we can find distal parts of flake scars that remained after the preceding processes of
core reduction. Their more detailed characteristic (determination of the length, the direction of detachment, and
identification of the striking point) can contribute to the reconstruction of technological processes. The new method
for the calculation of the length of the flake scar is based on a more or less regular spreading of the strike strength
that manifests itself in the raw material as concentric lines of force (waves) with the centre at the striking point (in
case of using a hard hammer). By determining the radius of a certain wave we can also establish the length of the
entire flake. Two methods have been tested in an experiment – a calculation of a selected circular segment, or
measuring it using a template. The application of a template turned out to be more precise and less time-consuming,
and we confronted the template with the waves on the preserved flake scar. At the same time we identified the cases,
when the measuring was not precise due to external factors. The application of the method was tested on a discoid
core with the respective flakes created in an experiment, and on two refittings of Aurignacian cores. In all of the
cases it is evident that the method of reconstruction of the length of the flake can be widely used in the technological
analysis of chipped stone industry.
ER  -