An Exceptional Dalton Era Flake Knife

[uniface]

Or flake blade, but since it was used as a knife, knife it is.

Dalton era folks liked flakes this size/shape, but had either forgotten how to make blades or figured they it was too much trouble. So they ended up with stuff like this (which is much thinner than most). Amazing delicate retouching along the entire working edge shows this was not a Paleo one-off. Found by Lashanne Johnson and her dad in either Benton or Hardin County, Tennessee. Nice black Buffalo River chert.

 

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[ToddsPoint]

I had some of that material that came from around Clifton, TN. Good stuff! The texture reminds me of a leather motorcycle jacket. Gary

 

[MAMucker]

Beautiful blade!

 

[uniface]

Glad you like it. Micro flaking like that is pretty scarce.

 

[uniface]

Relative to these,

Late Paleolithic peoples often practiced a highly skilled blade tool manufacturing process, and we can see some of this in the earliest levels at Rock Creek Mortar Shelter. However, we also see that while the idea was technically sound, the execution of blade production was often poor. Or, stone tools and cores were initially well-thought out and executed but then digressed in technical know-how and execution. This suggests that skilled adult knappers were teaching (probably younger) novices their technological knowhow on site with varying degrees of success.

We can also see a shift in technology. Late Paleolithic blade tool production was a very specific type of production that involved very precise preparation of cores and the production of long, straight blades with regular lateral edges. We see some of this at Rock Creek. However, we also see a shift in the production. Long flakes were still selected, but the manufacturing process changed. Cores were no longer intricately prepared. Flakes are long and flat but without the regular lateral margins. Widely available raw materials may have allowed early inhabitants of the plateau the luxury of spending much less time preparing their cores for stone tool manufacture in favor of more expedient methods for essentially the same end products.

 

[Tnmountains]

Nice one and big. That material around here is called knox chert. I bet it is the same stuff. Nice blade there.