Used for the creation of implements for hunting, fishing, woodworking, and clothes making.
Percussion Reduction[]
Hard-Hammer Percussion
As the name implies this is the first manner in which humans worked stones into useable tools:
- Bipolar: The earliest form of lithic reduction, during which a toolstone is struck against an anvil stone for hte purpose of developing flakes
- Hard-Hammer: The use of rocks as percussors to strike off and shape rocks
- Soft-Hammer: The use of antlers, wood, and bones as percussors to strike off and shape rocks
- Indirect: This is the use of a percussor and a punch in order to more precisely control where the force is applied
Pressure Flaking[]
A much more refined means of creating sharp and precise instruments, this method involves using a sharp instrument such as an antler or bone to apply at specific points. The objective is to remove flakes from the outside of a stone. This is often accomplished by first preparing the edge using rough-faced stones as abraiders. This led to the creation of much finer instruments than had been possible before. There is evidence this technique was used as early as 73,000 B.C.E.