MORPHOLITHEX project set out to better understand how prehistoric people made stone tools. Archaeologists have learned, over several decades of replicative experimental work, that flintknapping is a rather complex motor skill. They understood that the person producing a stone tool can control its final form by manipulating the various aspects of tool production: shaping the geometry of the core, the angle of the platform edge, how deep into the platform a core is struck, the angle of the blow, using hammers of different size and shape. Archeologists have used replicative experiments to show how each of these variables affects the outcome of the flake. Moreover, it was stressed by the researchers that how the knapper controls all these aspects, testifies to the predetermination of a blank form and is thought to capture the cognitive and learning abilities of knappers. However, the flintknapping process is so internalized that, for the knapper, it is very difficult to evaluate objectively the exact effect each of these variables have, separately and especially how they interact with one other.
MORPHOLITHEX aimed to parse out the main components of the knapping processes that have a crucial impact on the final stone tool product. It used artifacts produced in a simulated knapping setting (a custom-built machine) that makes it possible to control several variables relevant for flintknapping and thus evaluate their importance – independently and in interaction with other variables - in the final size and the shape on an artifact. Cores made out of glass are knapped in a machine that uses pneumatic cylinder or hydraulic press to remove flakes, thus imitating flintknapping. In this setting, it is possible to control many, if not all the variables that are under control of the knapper: core shape, platform angle and depth, angle of blow, hammer type.
Flakes coming off the cores in this experiment were 3D scanned and advanced methods are used to analyze the data: 1) 3D geometric morphometrics to better capture size and shape, 2) advanced statistical modeling to investigate the simultaneous effects of different variables, and especially their interaction.
This work contributed to our understanding of how stones break. It addressed the underlying rules of flake formation, that will further help archaeologist better understand how prehistoric people exploited these rules in the course of Prehistory.
