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Early technologies
Published in Jill L. Baker, Technology of the Ancient Near East, 2018
To make stone tools, a technique known as flint knapping was utilized throughout the ancient world and is still in use today. This technique was used to make hand axes, hammers, knives, scrapers, chisels, awls, smoothers, spear heads, arrowheads, adzes, harpoons, and numerous other items. At first, just the stone tool was utilized. Later, wood, bone, antler, and ivory were added as handles and shafts. To prepare a stone tool, a suitable type of stone must first be chosen, usually one made of chert, obsidian, jasper, agate, gaspeite, basalt, porcellanite, or any conchoidal fracturing stone. Percussion flaking and hammer flaking—forming a tool by striking the core or flakes—was accomplished by using bone, ivory, antler, wood, or a hammer stone made of harder stones. The core was held in one hand and the hammer stone in the other. When the core was struck, bits of it flaked off. The flakes were then shaped into the desired tool. Finishing of the blade edge was done with smaller pieces of wood, antler, or even a fingernail (Shea 2013:17–47; paleomanjim, Flintknapping-Beginners Part 1, www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyzNIa-U5Nc).
Metal–Crucible Interactions
Published in Nagaiyar Krishnamurthy, Metal–Crucible Interactions, 2023
The evolution of humankind has been closely linked with the use of tools. The variety and types of tools possible, in turn, depend on the range of materials available. Stone tools, many types of them but nevertheless only stone tools, both naturally existing and improvised, were used in the incredibly long Palaeolithic and Neolithic eras (ca. 2,500,000–3200 BCE).
The role of SiO2 and silica-rich amorphous materials in understanding the origin of uncommon archeological finds
Published in Materials and Manufacturing Processes, 2020
Frequently encountered archeological siliceous stone tools are the limno- and hydrosilicite materials, as well as radiolarites, cherts, and cemented diatomite. In addition to amorphous silica, these rocks contain mostly nanocrystalline quartz ± moganite and it is their texture, which renders them more suitable for knapping as compared to opals. The role of SiO2 in amorphous materials is even more important in the case of raw materials for metal working (mainly ores), glass production, and ceramics. These SiO2-rich materials are encountered both in products and wastes, such as slags[14] and fused clay residues (FCR).[15] It must be emphasized that they are not pure amorphous SiO2 material, but a silicate-based glassy material also containing other chemical elements. From this point of view, FCR is an important material, since it records fire events of buildings or technological processes, which otherwise would not be recorded, also giving information on raw materials applied as additional building or technological solutions, like plaster or filler.