FLINTKNAPPING MAGAZINE VOL. 1. NUMBER. 5. September 2013

 

 

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 REPLICATION OF THE CASTING LAB DALTON:

BY BOB PATTEN

 

  Paleo artifacts with parallel flaking have a special aesthetic appeal. Many knappers are making good looking copies of such work but detailed descriptions of their methods are lacking. In an attempt to partially remedy the problem, I Will describe how I made  a large Dalton style point which was cast in black epoxy resin at each major step along the way.

  Pete Bostrom of Lithic Casting Lab in Troy, Illinois did his usual outstanding  job of capturing  every detail. In fact, I can fit flakes back to the cast nearly as well as to the original. Pete's large selection of commercially available casts is growing and now includes  Old World artifact types.

  This in not the first time that successive stages have been cast as the original blank was worked to a finished tool, but it is one of the first sets to be made generally available for study.

  The large Dalton was chosen for its' striking appearance and because I had been having good results in copying the style. It should be noted that my only direct  guidance came from examining casts of finished artifacts.  My studies of Eden point making have been drawn upon to deduce a likely sequence of steps prior to the final dressing.

  The usual way to separate portions of the knapping process is to define stages which represent changes in tools or strategy. I ordinarily divide my work into the following stages:

1) Select quarry stone blank.

2) Use percussion to make a preform with plane faces and desired thickness.

3) Use pressure to regularize, bevel and shape the preform.

4) Use pressure to sequentially dress the preform.

5) Sharpen the edge by beveling.

  With the exception of the first cast, the casts represent transitions of one stage of work to the next.  This kind of clue may be the most useful to find in an archaeological collection.  Unless you can see the change happening, how can you judge weather a stage is "complete"?

  Heavy ripples left from the percussion stage were difficult to work past in later stages. They provide unmistakable landmarks by which to correlate one cast to the other.  Under normal circumstances, all traces of the percussion stage could be expected to be obliterated. By using the landmarks from prior stages, it was possible to insure that each stage was properly oriented in relation to the piece. The dorsal face was chosen to be the rounded face of the original blank    while theflat face was labeled ventral.

CAST # 1

 Since casting requires expensive materials, I had to plan the project carefully.  A mistake at any stage could have been costly.  The first problem was to choose a starting piece of stone which was suitably shaped and sized for casting.  It also needed to be of good quality and sufficient complex to illustrate a wide range of the aspects of the knapping process.  I picked a palm sized heat- treated chert from the Battle  Mountain, Nevada quarries.  As it is found, the chert is very tough but heat treating gives it a quality rivaling obsidian, although it is as white as snow.  The stone was given to me in treated condition so I can't describe the treating.  Anyone  wanting to heat treat Battle Mountain chert should be cautioned, however, that it is an ore of mercury which gives off potentially deadly fumes and ventilation is absolutely essential.

CAST # 1

  If the quarry blank had not already been heated, my normal routine would have been to goon to initial percussion before heat treatment.  One flake on the dorsal face was removed before casting  to sample the quality of the stone  Cracks extending into the stone were noted, but I felt I could work around them  Similarly, chalky deposits looked shallow enough to work around.
  Those chalky spots were our first real problem in a different way than expected. The mold material kept sticking to the chalk and tearing, but Pete was able to get a good cast after several tries.

CAST # 2

  When I got the blank back from the first casting, I was faced with afirst priority of removing obvious cracks and surface flaws.  It was immediately apparent that the choice of a heat treated blank made work touchy.  Taking large thinning flakes took extra are fractures tended to undulate badly instead of feathering smoothly. As if that weren't enough of a problem,  a series of buried fractures were found under the chalk on the dorsal face.


CAST # 2

  Prior to percussion, each platform was carefully prepared by pressure to isolate and then ground to take the force of percussion without any chance of shatter.  A  platform was left unstuck near the right tip of the dorsal face.  Its placement was planned to run under or through the buried cracks.  The scar is clearly evident in the third cast.  The preform was very lightly supported in one hand while the antler baton was swung loosely by the other hand.
  Flakes were numbered and saved for future reference.  Eighteen percussion flakes were removed from the blank before the second cast was made.  While the edges look  rough and irregular, the target centerline thickness of about 10 mm has been reached.  Work was stopped at this stage partly because of  the risk of breakage   and partly because it was seen that pressure flaking would begin to take a bigger role in production.

CAST# 3 

  Percussion was used for the larger flakes at the next step, but an antler tine was use to pressure off the irregular places before percussion was used.  Pressure work was done by traditional hand held methods although., for the larger flakes. I tend to prepare spur platforms sililar to percussion platforming. Note that the percussion at this stage is designed to regularize the edge and faces but  doesn't  contribute significantly to thinning.

CAST # 3

 One edge has been beveled by pressure dressing with an antler tine to insure that patterned flakes can be taken later with out running into surface impediments.















CAST# 4

  The remaining edge was beveled and shaped to the outline wanted in the finished product. Starting from the tip, a sequential series of flakes was taken from the right ridge of the face. After each flake, a small spur was prepared in line with the rear margin of the flake scar.  Slight grinding insured that the spur platform was strong enough to carry pressure without collapsing.  One platform has been left at the bottom right of the dorsal face so that details of its construction can be examined. Another flake scar starting the base to tip sequence on the left side needs retouching to set up the next platform. I used a wooden wedge to elevate the edge and keep the platform steady while flaking onto a table supported anvil.

CASTING # 4

 Now that I have had more experience with Dalton replications, I prefer a hand held version of the same method as it is easier and faster.  Pressure is delivered just skimming the face so as to make the flakes run far.


















CAST# 5

  This cast represents the finished Dalton.  Base-to tip sequential flaking from individually prepared platforms has been completed.  With each sequential flaking pass on an edge, width of the preform  is decreased by about 2 mm.  That amounts to just over a quarter inch of width decrease in the final dressing stage.  Very light retouch is sufficient to straighten the edge and shape the haft.  About a quarter inch of the tip broke off during the final dressing so some initial beveling was required to reshape the replica.  A mistake was made in trying to thin the haft by flakes up the center line.  Instead of indenting the base first and then taking long  flakes, I tried to take a series of thinning flakes as I worked the basal concavity. The result is less of a fluting effect than there should have been.

BEYOND CAST #5

  Continued use as a knife would damage the edge and sharping would always occur on the right edge of a face.  Sharpening flakes would be pressed from a ground edge in a sequence from the tip toward the base.  Eventually, sharpening imparts a propeller-like twist and causes the familiar long tapered shape of most discarded Dalton points.  Some times the sharpening flakes were spaced far enough apart that a spur serration formed a wickedly efficient cutting edge.   For this project, however, the series stopped at five casts.

CAST # 5

  "The Art Of Preserving The Past"April 1998 "Mammoth Trumpet" By Carol Ann Lysek
(Abbreviated Version)

   If you were to visit the world's largest repository of molds and master molds of important Stone Age tools you would have to travel through the southern Illinois cornfields to Troy, Illinois, for it is there that Pete Bostrom operates his Lithic Casting lab.
          Known internationally in archaeological circles for the high quality of his casts of Stone Age artifacts, Bostrom has devised many of his own methods in what has evolved into a complex multi-step casting process that ultimately results in molds, master molds, and finished casts that look almost exactly like the original artifacts. Bostrom believes he is probably the only person doing this specialized craft as a full time occupation.
    The Lithic Casting Lab "has in the past" specialized in the replication of prehistoric stone artifacts for museum displays, teaching aids, reference collections, and for special situations such as casting artifacts that will be damaged when samples are cut from them for thin-section or obsidian hydration dating analysis. Bostrom has also molded and cast artifacts that need to be examined under a scanning electron microscope but will not fit inside the instrument; selected areas for study can be cut from the cast and the artifact itself is left whole."

 

 

             

Bob Patten, High Plains Paleo Flintnapper

By Ray Harwood.     

Bob Patten, High Plains Paleo Flintnapper
 

Bob Patten has been flintknapping for nearly 40 years and is self
taught. He uses as close to aboriginal methods as possible. He has

tools can create the same effect.

just released a book where he shares his extensive knowledge in a
concise, yet comprehensive, overview of flintknapping. He clearly
explains the principles and concepts required to make stone tools.
According to Dr. James Dixon, Denver Museum of Natural history-
archaeologist, "Old tools-New Eyes is the best book of its type I
have had the pleasure to read. Bob is one of North America's greatest
flintknappers." Bob's book contains these concepts on ; Appreciate
early tool making skills, Link appearance of an artifact with the way
it was made, understand and control fracture, receive detailed
instructions on how to make arrowheads, learn how classic artifact
types were made , view 200 carefully prepared illustrations and
acquire fresh ideas and novel viewpoints.

The biggest influence on Bob Patten's knapping was Indian artifacts.
At first, he tried to copy them by referring to standard typology
based on shapes. It wasn't long though before he got hooked on
tracing out the whole start-to-finish process. When Bob got access to
collections of workshop debitage through the Smithsonian Institution
his progress really took off. Since then, he has come to think that
only a few minor shifts in technology are responsible for the whole
range of paleo-style points. Bob also thought that it may not take
that much skill to match paleo-indian work. The trick is to focus
less on the end results and more on how you get there.

Many years ago Bob heard Don Crabtree remark that many areas of the
world lacked large antlered animals, so there must be different tools
which serve as well as antler to explain the artifacts which were
being found. Since that time, Bob has found that it is possible to do
the same things with many kinds of tools if one understands the
mechanics involved. Part of his work involves finding out how many

Bob patten's style of percussion work is very relaxed. Instead of
supporting the preform on his leg, he keeps his work as loose in his
left hand as is possible. He also swings his baton very loosely. He
has a strong preference for working against individually prepared
striking platforms. Even when he is pressure flaking, he usually uses
a copper "nibbler" to set up spur platforms.Most of Bob Patten's
pressure work is done with unhafted antler tines. He usually works in
a sitting position with his left hand on top of his leg and works the
tine with wrist and arm action. The exception has been when he uses a
table block for Eden flaking.

PATTEN AND THE PALEO KNAPPERS : The Late Don Crabtree, of southern
Idaho, is considered to be the "Dean of American Flintknapping" not
only for his fine publications, but also for the vast amount of
important information he uncovered in a life devoted to the study of
stone tools. Don was most probably the first flintknapper in
thousands of years to flute a Folsom point, as early as 1941 Crabtree
was employed at the Lithic Laboratory at the University of
Pennsylvania and the prestigious Smithsonian Institution. He had
experimented with fluting in the 1930s but became quite famous for
his studies into the Lindenmier Folsom in 1966 . Don Crabtree passed
away on November 16, 1980. Jeffery Flenniken and Gene Titmus,
students of Crabtree carried on the studies and are still considered
to be among the best flintknappers in the world. In Texas, The late
J.B. Sollberger was considered the master of Folsom and learned on
his own to create masterful fluted points with a methodology
involving the use of the fulcrum and lever . J.B.s replicas were
beautifully crafted out of the finest of Texas flints. Again part of
the Sollberger legacy is the vast amount of published works and
theories that he pioneered. J.B. passed away on May, 7th 1995. In the
Southern United States two knappers of quite diverse back grounds
were also working on the Folsom mystery: D.C. Waldorf of Missouri and
Errett Callahan of Virginia. Waldorf crafted his replicas in a large
part to sell in the commercial market place, and sold them as
replicas, but also to research the Folsom technologies for books he
would later write and market. One of Waldorf's books, The Art of
Flintknapping, sold over 40,000 copies. Waldorf is still active in
both flintknapping and the study of fluted point technologies and he
and his wife, Val, publish a magazine called Chips that is devoted to
flintknapping. Callahan also worked and studied in a social vacuum in
the 1960s, but he had the advantage of academia behind him, yet in
those days the published material was both sparse and, to a large
degree, incorrect. Callahan went on to publish perhaps the most
important paper written to date on fluted point studies, The Basics
of Biface Knapping in the Eastern Fluted Point Tradition. In the
American Southwest Circa the mid to late 1960s, the new Folsom age
was being revised by two additional notable experimentalists, Bob
Patten, of Lakewood, Colorado and Bruce Bradley of Tucson, Arizona.
Bruce Bradley worked closely with Crabtree and Sollberger as well as
French flintknapper Francois Bordes. Once Bruce Bradley's knapping
skills were well honed he began working with some of the world's best
known Paleo-archaeologists; George Frison, Vance Haynes, Rob
Bonnichson and Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian Institute. In 1980
Bruce Bradley was involved with these scientists in a PBS Odyssey
television special called Seeking The First Americans. In this now
classic film Bruce Bradley knapped two paleo type points. Bradley
also participated in "Clovis and beyond" and continues his
involvement in lithic research. Bob Patten learned the high plains
paleo tradition and became a master of creating Folsom points out of
tough unheated lithic materials. Ten Years after Bruce Bradley
appeared on the Odyssey special, Bob Patten was featured crafting a
fluted Clovis point in the PBS television special- NOVA: Search For
the First Americans, and like the Odyssey special ten years before,
the film featured Dennis Stanford and Vance Haynes. Nearly a decade
after the film Bob published a book on his flintknapping
methodologies called Old Stones New Eyes. Bob is often seen around
the country conducting Flintknapping demonstrations at archaeological
meetings and was recently featured at "Clovis and Beyond" and "The
Folsom Workshop" . Most of the knappers today are not part of the
1960s experimentalism movement, the new field of thought is
as "lithic art" and the points are created not with aboriginal
methods that add to the data base of experimental archaeology, but
with lapidary equipment, they contribute very little to the study of
stone tools or ancient artifact studies. The Folsom fluted lanceolate
point was named by J.D. Figgins in 1934 after Folsom, New Mexico.
According to the American Museum of Natural History the first Folsom
point was discovered near Folsom, New Mexico on September 1, 1927 on
a joint expedition by archaeologists from the American Museum of
Natural History and the Denver Museum of Natural History. This small
fluted dart or spear point stands among the most important
archaeological finds ever made on this continent. This artifact is
now displayed in a cast of the bones of an ancient extinct bison in
which it was embedded, thus re-creating the context in which it was
found by members of that original expedition. Folsom points tend to
date between 10,000 BC to 8,000 BC. Folsom points have a large
geographic range within the Americas. Folsom points are characterized
by their short lanceolate basic form, concave base and long flute
extending on both faces from base, or proximal end, toward the tip,
or distal end, of the point. The purpose of the flute has long been
the subject of great controversy. Some have postulated that the flute
is an artistic element and may represent a flame and others feel it
has a functional purpose and was for blood letting from the wound of
their prey, thus causing the prey to bleed and weaken and leave a
trail for the hunter to fallow. others feel it is simply a hafting
technique where the split shaft nicely fits into the fluted channel.
What-ever the purpose, it seems to have evolved and been accentuated
from the older Clovis points that were also fluted from the base, or
proximal end. According to Michael Waters (1999), from Texas A&M
University, archaeologists: in the early 1950s artifacts, later to
become known as Clovis, were found beneath the Folsom cultural
horizon at Blackwater Draw, near Clovis, New Mexico and were later
carbon dated to nearly 13,359 BP. Clovis appears to have highbred, or
evolved into Folsom and the point made more stream-lined and the
flute improved and accentuated, the technology changing with hunting
technologies that were closely intertwined with the available game.

According to Paleo specialist, Bob Patten, of Lakewood, Colorado
(1999) when mammoths went extinct, spear points went through a re-
engineering, from the large Clovis to a more delicate form dominated
by the central flute scar. Instead of the mammoth the new quarry was
Bison Antiquus, a larger and more formidable game than the modern
bison.Even with the past few decades of Paleo point replication
studies the true production methodology is not completely understood.
According to Patten "it is likely that it will be some time before we
can say we know with assurance how Folsom points were made". Patten
prefers a method known as the rocker punch method. Patten's response
to the aboriginal flute method is this "My answer is that aboriginal
flute flake scars have distinctive attributes of flatness, rippling,
thickness, and so on. The rocker punch method seems to most closely
match original results" (Patten, 1999). At this time in
archaeological circles the theories on the first peoples of the New
World have been changing, rather than crossing the Bering land bridge
from northeast Asia to Alaska theories, they have come up with
theories of "paleo-notical", a Paleo ocean migration from Europe
along the edge of the polar ice cap into the northern most tip of
North America. Clovis-like Solutrean projectile points found in
Europe help support this hypothesis . If Clovis man indeed came to
the New World by boat, then it is my theory that the fluted point
technology was originally one that came from stone age harpoon tips.
In Alaska there is a fluted point type known as the Dorset point
which is characterized by two precise flutes or harpoon end blades
removed from the tip or distal end of this small flint triangular
harpoon point type. These paleo-eskimo points were part of a
specialized material culture based on northern marine exploitation
(Renouf, 1991) The first big game brought down by fluted points was
possibly not Pleistocene mega-fauna but large sea mammals, and the
altatl may have first been a harpoon launcher and later adapted to
land use as a spear thrower.

Bob Patten, known to all for his knapping and writing won this years
SAA Crabtree award. Below the SAA discribes sais award and past
awardees. Thanks for the dedication and contributions Bob.
Crabtree Award
Established in 1985 to recognize significant contributions to
archaeology in the Americas made by individual who has had little if
any formal training in archaeology and little if any wage or salary
as an archaeologist. The award is named after Don Crabtree of Twin
Falls, Idaho, who made significant contributions to the study of
lithic technology and whose dedication to archaeology was a lifelong
personal and financial commitment. The awardees have been:

1985 Clarence H. Webb, MD
1987 Leonard W. Blake
1988 Julian Dodge Hayden
1989 J. B. Sollberger
1990 Ben C. McCary
1991 James Pendergast
1992 Stuart W. Conner
1993 Mary Elizabeth Good
1994 Leland W. Patterson
1995 Jeff Carskadden
1996 James H. Word
1997 Sidney Merrick Wheeler (posthumous)
and Georgia Nancy Wheeler Felts
1998 Reca Jones
1999 Gene L. Titmus
2000 Richard P. Mason
2001 John D. "Jack" Holland
2002 Richard A. Bice
2003 Dr. Guillermo Mata Amado

A FLINTKNAPPER'S REFLECTONS ON A BEVELED POINT FROM TIERRA DEL FUEGO

BY: DR. HUGO GABRIAL NAMI

ARGENTINA.

In the southern part of the American continent there were hunter gatherer  societies that had a very delicate lithic technology. Some of the artifacts and projectile points described in previous articles(Nami 1884), from the Territorio Nacional de Tierra del Fuego and del Atantico Sur) are proof of this.

  In the most southern and wastern part of Isla Grande de Terra del Fuego(fig 1). inhabited by Haush tribes in historic times, there was an excellent manufacturing of projectile points.  (probably harpoons) .

 

  The first paper and analysis on lithic artifacts belonging to this region was published by Chapman and Hester (1973) In it, the latter (op,cit,:193) makes reference to the projectile point's finess and fine manufacturing, as well as to the biface's careful bifacial thinning (Chapman and Hester: 1973:197).

In January, 1984 the Museum Territorial de Tierra del Fuego sponsored a multidisciplinary expiation aiming at carrying out scientific investigations in Peninsula  Mitre.  Archaeologists Jose' Luis Lanata and Vidal, were members of this expedition.  The former explored   the northern part of the region, while the latter went to the South.

 In the Northern part of the Penninsula, there are a series of sites called Puesto Donata to one them (# 3 on map). where he found a great number of lithic artifacts. on the surface of the site. I have been given nearly one hundred specimens of this type of projectile point and related bifacial artifacts.  I have been given the task of lithic analysis.

  Most of the projectile points I have inspected thus far, were very carefully manufactured, the points are thin, lenticular,  and symmetrical. An excellent bifacial thinning is apparent on many specimens, After thinning the points, they were shaped with pressure retouch. Taking into account the tough raw materials used, the bifacial thinning is outstanding.   The materials being: quartzites, coarse and fine grained cherts, basalts, argillites and slates.

  Their morphologic and typologic variety is wide, according to Chapman and Hester (1973) the forms are as such.

- stemmed with an expanding attribute.

- basally notched with concaved based stem.

- basally notched with a large barb,

- triangular.  

  I was interested in one of these in particular, it showed a technological characteristic  that had not been noticed until now in Argentine lithic studies.  I am referring to the basally notched type that has an alternating double bevel on both edges, that is to say, this point belongs to beveled type 2.

  This point was made out od a piece of compact argillite and has a triangular form with straight borders, it is basally notched with a straight based stem (fig 2). As  I have mentioned above, it has been manufactured using first soft hammer percussion,   the flat part of these expanding flake scars still show, and finished with pressure flaking.  The pressure work on this piece is focused exclusively on the bevels and notches. 

  The bevels were made in the way : First, the bevel of one edge was created with pressure, then the point was turned over and the other margin was beveled. The left bevel has 45 degree and the right49 degree. It has a length of 68 mm, the width is 48 mm.    

 

 

Hugo Nami making experimental site in Northern Peninsula Mitre, Terra Del Fuego 1985.
Photo by: Thomas Clemens.



Hugo Nami making experimental site in Northern Peninsula Mitre, Terra Del Fuego 1985.
Photo by: Thomas Clemens

Archaeologist, researcher; Born: 1957 Location: Lomas del Mirador Country: Argentina Professor of Archaeology. Buenos Aires , Argentina. Hugo came to the USA in the 1980s and studied with Errett Callahan an American archaeologist, flintknapper, and pioneer in the fields of experimental archaeology and lithic replication studies. Hugo worked for the Smithsonian Museum for a time.

Coffee break in  Chile, excavation  1986 HUGO NAMI

Nami also worked closely with wilderness expert, Joe Dabill and Dr. Robson Bonnichsen, Director, Center for the Study of the First Americans and Professor of Anthropology, Oregon State University. Hugo has written hundreds of books and papers on Archaeology and flintknapping. And has had dozens of knapping students in Argentina. Hugi is a Karate expert and blackbelt.
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Curtis Smith
I finally got to meet Curtis Smith at the Flint Ridge knapin in the fall of 2012. I had admired his work online from his gallery on flintknappers.com
and from pictures he had posted on the paleo planet forum. I realized quickly in person that his pieces were as thin as he had claimed, so much
so I stuck the nickname "Mr. Thin" on him.

Curtis has the highest W/T ratio I have ever measured on a percussion piece. The W/T(width to thickness) is 14.1/1. That
means the piece is 14.1 times as wide as it is thick. It is 6.2 inches long and 3.75 inches wide and .265 inches thick at
the thickest point. It actually only has one small spot at that thickness, otherwise it measures .24-.25 throughout.

Curtis recently started a YouTube channel under his name. Curtis has an unique striking technique with the angle at which
he addresses the blade. You can see this very well in his video titled "Part 1 texas blade". Marty Rueter ran the camera in
this video and he did an excellent job of showing the striking and the platforms.

Curtis is from Texas and is a rock dealer. He travels the knapin circuit and if you ever get a chance to see his work in person do yourself a favor
and check it out.

Above is a picture of Curtis with his 14.1/1 blade.

By:

dwayne@modern-flintknapping.com

 

 Ray Harwood, Blogger: figflint@yahoo.com