Abstract

Australian flaked stone technologies are examined from a flintknapper's perspective. We identify six different flaking techniques in the archaeological collections, but only a single reduction sequence. The five stages of this sequence are described in detail and it is demonstrated that Australian technologies are highly opportunistic. We examine major classes of Australian flaked stone artefacts—adzes, backed artefacts, burins, points, "scrapers", "utilized flakes"—from a technological perspective. We conclude that most morphological variation within these broad classes is not the result of deliberate design. We also note that "backing" is simply the application of already-known bipolar technology to small flakes, and that more precise use-wear studies are needed to determine that "scrapers" and "utilized flakes" were actually used as tools.

 
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Bibliographic Data

Short Form
Flenniken and White, 1985, Rec. Aust. Mus. 36(3): 131–151
Author
J. Jeffrey Flenniken; J. Peter White
Year
1985
Title
Australian flaked stone tools: a technological perspective
Serial Title
Records of the Australian Museum
Volume
36
Issue
3
Start Page
131
End Page
151
DOI
10.3853/j.0067-1975.36.1985.342
Language
en
Date Published
19 April 1985
Cover Date
19 April 1985
ISSN (print)
0067-1975
CODEN
RAUMAJ
Publisher
The Australian Museum
Place Published
Sydney, Australia
Subjects
ANTHROPOLOGY; ABORIGINES: AUSTRALIAN; ARCHAEOLOGY
Digitized
14 May 2009
Available Online
16 July 2009
Reference Number
342
EndNote
342.enw
Title Page
342.pdf
File size: 142kB
Complete Work
342_complete.pdf
File size: 6980kB