Talk:Blade (archaeology)

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Have I missed something? Blades with one edge blunted by removal of tiny flakes are called backed blade. Isn't backed blades, blades which are made from cores where the core front has been retouched in order to create a ridge, from where blades can be more easily produced. MiCkE 15:15, 26 March 2008 (UTC) It seems I have :-). MiCkE 09:10, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Micke, you are talking about crested blades, not backed blades.--Jarmo K. (talk) 21:47, 15 March 2020 (UTC)

A few comments on the article

"Lithic reduction" does not refer solely to producing blades; for instance, producing flakes is also lithic reduction.

"Flintknapping" is an unnecessarily restrictive term; knapping is applied to a wide variety of stones besides flint. The term points to the page "Knapping", which would also be a sufficient term for this article.

The reason for using cryptocrystalline stone is not that it can be "easily fractured into a smooth piece without fracturing"(!) but the fact that it doesn't naturally fracture along set planes (like, e.g., slate or feldspar) but rather fractures conchoidally, like glass. This allows the knapper to fracture the stone in any direction, not just along the natural fracture planes.

Blades do not necessarily have at least two ridges on the dorsal side; particularly smaller blades often have only one. The number of ridges depends on the width of the blade, the curvature of the core edge and the location of the point of impact (which depends on the reduction technique) and may vary according to what the blade is meant to be used for. A wider blade with 2+ ridges would be useful for an endscraper or knife or a diagonally snapped trapezoidal arrowpoint, but a single-ridged blade is better for a Swiderian or "Post-Swiderian" type stemmed point where the central ridge gives ridgidity (!) to the tip and the tang.

A soft punch or a hammerstone are not the only options for making blades. Striking with a hard hammerstone (e.g., granite) is referred to as "direct hard technique", striking with an antler striker is "direct soft technique". A "soft" (i.e., antler, copper etc.) punch struck with a mallet is referred to as "indirect technique", and finally there is the pressure technique where a "soft" pointed pressure tool is squeezed (rather than struck)against a prepared platform.

Burins could be used for engraving, but their most important use was for grooving (actually, sawing with a one-toothed saw) materials such as bone, antler or wood into suitable preforms for making implements. Grooving a long bone into slivers for making harpoon heads and then grooving out the barbs would be typical jobs for a burin.

Microscopic striations are not the only features used for identifying blade production methods. The shape of the blade itself, the form of the platform remnant, the shape of the shoulders, the shape of the bulb of percussion, the presence or absence of a lip or chrushed point of impact on the platform remnant are all used as indicators of the technique employed. On the othe hand, micro- or macroscopic striations can indicate which end of a blade tool was toward the proximal (struck) and which toward the distal end even if both ends have been broken off. Microscopic and macroscopic signs of use wear are also used to identify what the implements were used for, but this applies to all tools and is a topic for a separate article.

It is interesting that the article text presents examples from Iran and Mesoamerica but not (except for the picture) from Europe, where different blade reduction methods and blade implement types are important diagnostic features of several Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic cultures.--Jarmo K. (talk) 12:30, 16 March 2020 (UTC)

Cores do not have a "... conchoidal nature. . ." Conchoidal fracture is a product of an isotropic material structure in which energy travels readily in all spatial directions within the core (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fracture_(mineralogy). [JWDougherty 1 Feb 2023] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.60.170.178 (talk) 01:16, 2 February 2023 (UTC)