Prepared-core technique: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:37, 6 May 2019

Revision as of 05:08, 6 May 2019

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{{Expert-subject|Archaeology|date=February 2009}}

[[File:Stone Core for Making Blades - Boqer Tachtit, Negev, circa 40000 BP (detail).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Flint stone core for making blades (reassembled from blades for illustration purposes), Boqer Tachtit, Negev, [[Israel]], circa 40000 BP.]]

[[File:Kebaran culture microliths 22000-18000 BP.jpg|thumb|Kebaran culture microliths, 22000-18000 BP|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Kebaran culture]] [[microlith]]s from a prepared core, 22000-18000 BP.]]

The '''prepared-core technique''' is means of producing [[stone tool]]s by first preparing common [[lithic core|stone cores]] into shapes that lend themselves to knapping off flakes that closely resemble the desired tool and require only minor touch-ups to be usable. In contrast to earlier techniques, where cores themselves were the end product shaped and trimmed down by removal of flakes, in prepared-core technique large flakes are the product and the core is used to produce them. This shift made it faster and more resource-efficient, as multiple tools could be struck from a single piece of starting material.<ref>{{cite web|title=Middle Paleolithic Tool Technologies|url=http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/faculty/stsmith/classes/anth3/courseware/LithicTech/8_Middle_Paleolithic_Tool.html|publisher=University of California Santa Barbara, Department of Anthropology|accessdate=16 September 2017}}</ref>