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In archaeology, in particular of the Stone Age, lithic reduction is the process of fashioning stones or rocks from their natural state into tools or weapons by removing some parts. It has been intensely studied and many archaeological industries are identified almost entirely by the lithic analysis of the precise style of their tools and the ...
Roca dels Bous (Catalan: "Bull's Rock") is an archaeological site located in Sant Llorenç de Montgai, in the Catalan Pyrenees, Spain.Since 1988 the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the UCL Institute of Archaeology study and record the fossil sequence of southern European Neanderthals who inhabited the area during the Middle Paleolithic approximately 50,000 years ago.
The term denotes a description of the stages of production of material culture—especially pottery and stone tools made through lithic reduction—from raw material acquisition to tool production to use to abandonment. [1] [2] [3] The chaîne opératoire was born out of archaeologists' interest in elevating lithic analysis beyond simple ...
Retouch is often taken as one of the most obvious features distinguishing a tool from a waste by-product of lithic manufacture . The extent of reduction, also known as the retouch intensity, is denoted by a measure of the reduction index. [3] There are many quantitative and qualitative methods used to measure this.
The technique was more sophisticated than earlier methods of lithic reduction, involving the striking of lithic flakes from a prepared lithic core. A striking platform is formed at one end and then the core's edges are trimmed by flaking off pieces around the outline of the intended lithic flake.
Because obsidian is not natural to Belize, the site of excavation, the obsidian cores were the product of transactions between the Mayans and those in present-day Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala. Obsidian blades are the sharpest natural cutting edges known, and after the lithic reduction already fractured blades, the triangular heads were produced.
The flakes are shaped using the lithic reduction techniques, allowing for creation of various tools such as arrowheads and handaxes. Two stone characteristics will determine whether one is able to chip away large enough flakes to make tools out of: whether the stone is of a cryptocrystalline structure, and how conchoidally the stone fractures ...
In archaeology, lithic analysis is the analysis of stone tools and other chipped stone artifacts using basic scientific techniques. At its most basic level, lithic analyses involve an analysis of the artifact's morphology, the measurement of various physical attributes, and examining other visible features (such as noting the presence or absence of cortex, for example).