Introducing platform surface interior angle (PSIA) and its role in flake formation, size and shape.

ABSTRACT: Four ways archaeologists have tried to gain insights into how flintknapping creates lithic variability are fracture mechanics, controlled experimentation, replication and attribute studies of lithic assemblages. Fracture mechanics has the advantage of drawing more directly on first principles derived from physics and material sciences, but its relevance to controlled experimentation, replication and lithic studies more generally has been limited. Controlled experiments have the advantage of being able to isolate and quantify the contribution of individual variables to knapping outcomes, and the results of these experiments have provided models of flake formation that when applied to the archaeological record of flintknapping have provided insights into past behavior. Here we develop a link

SUBMITTER: McPherron SP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7673556 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature