Bifacial and Blade Precision The Hallmark of Clovis Lithic Technology

Only two bifaces are present in the entire flaked stone assemblage (Table 4.3). If the presence of bifaces is used as a measure of reliance on bifacial ... Putting out a lot of information to jump headlong into the topic of Clovis point manufacturing from early bifaces to preforms through ... Clovis lithic technology has been characterized as containing complex biface and blade technologies, multiple flake and blade tools such as end ... Modern humans and their hominid ancestors relied on chipped-stone technology for well over two million years and coloniz... Their toolkit included bifaces, blades, and deadly spear points. Where they worked, they left thousands of pieces of debris, which have allowed ... Two unifaces are in the collection. Both are made on biface-thinning flakes. One is unifa- cially worked at one end of the flake. The other is unifacially ... both the biface and blade knapping is equally suit- able for flake tool blanks and needs to be consis- tently included when making comparisons. This paper examines theoretical and methodological approaches to measuring and discussing skill in the archaeological record. There is reason to expect, and compel- ling evidence to show, that cache blades are not repre- sentative of Clovis blade production and products. ... biface blade; B, scraper on uniface blade; C, uniface ... lithic technology, suggesting a significant acceleration in the complexity of cultural systems.