Best Class I took at College. Lithics!

[skylarking1970]

While attending Kent State University, I had to drop my glass blowing II class due to time constraints and took a class offered by Kenneth Tankersly called Lithics.
It was the best class that I ever took.
Basically, it was the study of stone and how man used the different types of stone to manufacture tools.

In class, Dr. Tankersly manufactured some scrapers and used one to cut grass, one to cut wood, and one to butcher a deer that he found on the side of the road. We then looked at the scrapers under a microscope to identify the wear patterns left behind on the scrapers that were used to cut the different objects.

For our final, we had to look at different scrapers under microscopes and identify correctly what that scraper was used to cut based off of the wear patterns.

For those not familiar, I am sure that with a little research, and a microscope, you could look at your scrapers and identify what they were used for.

Thought you might find that interesting.

 

[shopdog]

sounds like it was pretty cool

 

[creek astronaut]

sounds very interesting!nice post

 

[Th3rty7]

If I could go back and do it again I'd take as many geology, anthropology, and archaeology classes as possible. I only had one geology class in college and it was one of my favorites. I went to a archaeology society of va. lecture last night on regional lithics, it was very informative and interesting.

 

[Tnmountains]

Can you tell even after water wear? That would be very interesting to see what each object was made for or specifically used as . Cool post.
TnMtns

 

[jeff a]

are you still in kent? i went up there and talked to ken and olaf prufer a few times,im in ravenna

 

[coteau]

Have you ever heard of "table wear"? I have an archy report where they claim that sliding an artifact across a table causes leveling, smoothing, and faceting on the high flake scar ridges. They claim that the previous owners of the artifacts probably slid them across a table while showing them to friends etc.

I have thought about taking a modern point and sliding it across a table to see how many slides it takes before I can notice changes under magnification . I would think that it would take quite a lot of slides to smooth the flake scars, but maybe not...

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

i did not take the class at kent state...took it at nau...
handling stone does cause wear...i have seen it, and when i was in a stone cutting phase of my life, would go out of my way to have as many people as possible handle it. gave it a nice patina and polish.