Not an Arrowhead : Levallois Knapping

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This a procedure used in the Mousterian era (Neanderthals) that carried over into later times because it worked. Dragoo noted it at Wells Creek (a Paleo site he investigated in Tennessee) many years ago, but you don't see it mentioned often.

Start out out with a flake core like this one :



You could just keep taking flakes off until it was exhausted (used up) OR, you could take the top off like a cap (Levallois procedure), yielding something like this, with sharp edges pretty much all around (except for the striking platform, depending on how it was made).



Subsequent trimming fitted it for whatever use(s) it was intended for.

Notice with these how the flakes converge toward the center.

 

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[uniface]

The wider flakes are from core preparation ; the small ones are use wear.

 

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This, I think, is going to turn into a longer thread. Found just now, bopping through old documents saved on the dinosaur:

"Archaeological excavations conducted in 1975 at the Shriver site (23DV12) in Daviess county, Missouri . . . have recovered stratified remains of a Woodland assemblage and a Paleo-Indian fluted point assemblage overlying a lower stratum of earlier cultural remains. These lowermost artifacts were manufactured predominantly from flakes struck from discoid-shaped prepared cores, by a technique reminiscent of the old World Levallois technique." Flake Tools Stratified Below Paleo-Indian Artifacts. Reagan et al. in Science, New Series, Vol. 200, Nr. 4347 (June 16, 1978), p. 1272​

 

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An example that might be easier to visualize as resulting from this procedure. Davies County, Indiana. Dongala Chert. Found by Marty Hoevel along Smothers Creek. Double click for detail.



It it would not have been possible for the major flake surfaces on the top to have been produced unless it was still anchored to a larger, heavier mass before removal.

 

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You will only rarely see one like this -- if ever. Looks like a Levallois core : you can easily see where this type of removal was taken off. But then the maker dropped down a little and took a second flake off (this one), immediately below it. Clark County, Ky. Jeff Shoemacher.

 

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Unknown material, Ross County, Ohio. Ignore unremovable thumbnail @ bottom.

 

[gilmerman]

I enjoy all artifacts and examples and discussions about the Mousterian Period, I guess because, 23/me says I have 245 genetic variants traced to my Neanderthal ancestry. Thanks

 

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Too late to edit

Just recognized tubby scraper (Nr. 5) lithic as Nethers Flintridge from a Jon Dickinson offering made of it.

FWIW

Probable broken-off spur @ right corner.

 

[H.P.]

So as I understand it, a levelollois flake was struck from a core with a predetermined shape in mind to form a suitable tool, ..cool tools.always quality flint.

 

[uniface]

Google is sometimes your friend. Astonished that people don't routinely look stuff up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levallois_technique

Notice that North America is conspicuously absent, in obedience to politically-imposed "truth."

 

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Another one I ran into, rooting around in the image file. Much thinner than most. Jeff Schoemacher, Clark Co., Ky.