Glossary of Stone Artifact Types

Lithic tool and debitage types represented in the analyzed assemblages are briefly defined below.

Debitage (Flakes)

Primary Decortication Flake. Primary decortication flakes are usually large, broad flakes removed during the initial reduction stage. These flakes have cortex on the dorsal face and the platform.

Secondary Decortication Flake. These are flakes detached in the early stages of reduction. Cortex is present on at least half of the dorsal surface, but there is no cortex on the platform.

Interior Flake. Interior flakes are usually thin, exhibit no cortex on the dorsal surface, and have scars of previous flakes removed from the dorsal surface. These flakes are usually produced during the thinning or shaping of tools and bifaces.

Bifacial Thinning Flake. Bifacial thinning flakes (BTF) have a number of distinctive characteristics that allow their separation from interior flakes. Bifacial thinning flakes are removed during the thinning or resharpening of bifaces. These flakes are relatively flat, have broad, shallow flake scars (produced by the detachment of previous thinning flakes from the dorsal face), and tend to exhibit a feathering out of lateral margins. The proximal end of the flake often retains the edge of the biface and, if the platform is retained, it often exhibits a low angle and evidence of crushing or grinding (i.e., platform preparation).

Shatter Fragment. These pieces of manufacturing debris are blocky, angular fragments that do not exhibit bulbs of percussion, striking platforms, or dorsal flake scars.

Chipped-Stone Tools

Projectile Points. Projectile points are finished bifaces with lateral edges that converge to a point and have been modified at the proximal end to facilitate hafting. These artifacts were assigned either to a specific historical type (see Coe 1964) or to a general form, such as "projectile point, probably Woodland." In addition, six blade and base shapes were used to describe the specific edge configuration of small triangular projectile points.

Biface. Bifaces are blanks that exhibit flake-removal scars on both surfaces. These artifacts are usually irregular in outline and vary in thickness and size. Many artifacts classified as bifaces are probably tools that broke during manufacture, or bifaces that could not be thinned and were discarded. Several specimens assigned to this category are represented only by small edge fragments that cannot be further identified.

Preform. The bifaces in this category are well thinned but do not have well-shaped or retouched lateral margins. Many of these represent unfinished hafted bifaces. Some appear to have been biface blanks that were discarded during manufacture because of a flaw or an inclusion in the raw material. Others are blanks that were broken during the final stages of thinning.

Drill. A drill displays alternate bifacial retouch along the major portion of the working edge resulting in a rod-like projection that is usually biconvex or diamond-shaped in cross section.

Graver/Perforator. A graver is a tool with intentional retouch that results in a small triangular-shaped projection, whereas a perforator exhibits intentional retouch that results in a converging point that is larger than a graver. The retouch forming a graver or perforator may be either unifacial or bifacial but is more often unifacial.

Scraper. A scraper (end or side) is defined as a flake which displays regularized edge retouch to produce a uniform and continuous edge. In the assemblages under consideration, the scrapers also appeared to have been made primarily on flakes. The morphological differences between retouched flakes and scrapers may be more of a matter of degree rather than kind.

Utilized/Retouched Flake. A retouched flake is defined as a flake which displays edge modification resulting from use or intentional retouch with flake scars that extend at least 2 mm from the edge of the tool. A utilized flake is defined as a flake with flake scars resulting from use that extend less than 2 mm from the tool edge. It is presumed that tools exhibiting retouched edges were utilized, however, no microwear analysis was performed during the study to verify this. Usually such modification occurs on flakes and is confined to the flake edge.

Pièce Esquillée. A pièce esquillée is a piece of stone which exhibits repeated bipolar percussion blows and is characterized by crushed working edges with sharp perpendicular corners. Presumably these tools would have been used to slot dense material such as bone and antler.

Chopper. A chopper is a heavy-duty tool, roughly chipped to produce an angular working face. Chipping on these tools may be either bifacial or unifacial but usually only slightly alters the natural shape of the stone.

Utilized Cobble. These specimens are cobbles that exhibit flake removal scars and/or utilized edges indicative of chopping or scraping activities.

Chipped-Stone Disk. A chipped-stone disk is a flat, circular piece of stone whose edges have been flaked into a disk shape. The function of these artifacts is unknown.

Ground-Stone Tools

Mano. A mano is a cobble or cobble fragment with one or more flat surfaces produced by abrasion and grinding. Such tools were presumably used for food processing.

Anvil. An anvil is a cobble or large stone that displays one or more crushed, depressed, or slightly concave areas, presumably from use in lithic reduction or nut cracking.

Grinding Stone. Grinding stones are large stones that display smoothed or ground, flattened surfaces resulting from the processing of plant and animal foods.

Polished Cobble. Polished cobbles are cobbles or cobble fragments with smoothed or polished areas resulting from scraping or grinding activities.

Pitted Cobble. A pitted cobble is a cobble or cobble fragment that displays battered depressions on one or more faces. Although the traditional interpretation of these tools is that they are a product of nut processing, they probably also functioned as anvils.

Ground-Stone Celt. This ground-stone axe form exhibits a bi-convex working edge, is sub-triangular in form, and has a tapered poll end. Celts were probably manufactured by percussion, pecking, or grinding. Moreover, the bit end was polished to produce a sharp working edge.

Ground-Stone Disk. A ground-stone disk is a flat, circular piece of stone whose edges have been flaked and then ground into a disk shape. The function of these artifacts is unknown.

Chunkey Stone. These ground-stone artifacts are circular in plan view and plano-convex in cross section. They are finely ground or polished.

Other Stone Tools

Hammerstone. Hammerstones are cobbles or cobble fragments that exhibit battered and pitted edges resulting from use as a percussor.

Core. Cores are nodules or chunks of raw material from which one or more flakes have been detached (leaving more than one negative bulb of percussion), and whose flake scars seem to indicate removal for the production of flake blanks or the initial stages of biface production.