THE PLATFORM
-a publication of the Minnesota Knappers Guild-
THE PLATFORM
-a publication of the Minnesota Knappers Guild-
Editor: Gene Altiere
712 MEDICAL ARTS BUILDING
DULUTH, MN 55802
Sharpen your tools, gather up your stone, refine your tall tales (lies) and get ready for 5th Annual Minnesota Knappers' Guild Knap-In to be held June 26 and 27 in Pine City, MN! Once again the event is being co-sponsored by the Guild and the Minnesota Historical Society and will be held at the Society's Northwest Company Fur Post three miles west of Pine City (take Pine City exit off I-35 and head west to the Fur Post). The event is scheduled to begin at 8 am Saturday but there are usually a few campers who show up Friday night and get started early. Camping is available at the site but there are no hook-ups so be self contained. Latrine facilities and running water are available. Food and motel accommodations are available in Pine City. Registration is free and all registered knappers are eligible for door prizes. The Knap-In is open to the public and we usually have a few hundred visitors viewing the Fur Post and bringing in artifacts for the archaeologists from the Historical Society to identify. Buying, trading is selling is allowed but we try to keep it low key and suggest that you sign your lithic work. For more information, contact Jim Regan (612) 462-5568.
The Minnesota Knappers Guild continues to enjoy a super relation-ship with regional professional archaeologists. Once again, our members have been invited to demonstrate knapping skills to the general public at the Misiano site in Northeastern Minnesota. Supervisory Archaeologist, Gordon Peters, for the Superior National Forest (and a MKG member) included in his invitation the comment that volunteers, students and site visitors state that "the flintknapping demonstration is the one most often noted 'memorable educational experience' during their visit to the site". Arrangements have been made for a demonstration on July 31. Interested MKG members are invited to participate. However, because of the space limitations, we may have to limit how many members can participate in the demonstration. Those who are interested are asked to contact the editor.
***The MKG editor has also recently received a letter from the Thunder Bay Chapter of the Ontario Archaeology Society. We reported in the last issue that new MKG member Mike McLeod had sent us a copy of the OAS newsletter,"Wanikan". After some correspondence between the MKG and OAS editors, we have agreed to exchange newsletters. The OAS editor, Andrew Hinshelwood, was also kind enough to send us more detailed information on Kanzi, the flintknapping chimp that we mentioned in the last issue. We've included an article on Kanzi in this issue.
***The Guild also received a letter expressing appreciation to MKG members Tony Romano and Jim Regan for their participation in helping teach the Stone Tool Making Class at the Minnesota Historical Society's History Center in St. Paul. Archaeologists LeRoy Gonsior and Bruce Koenen organized the class for the Historical Society. LeRoy (also a MKG member) said that the class was so popular that additional people had to be turned down and that he thinks the class may become a regular event at the History Center.
***MKG members Vern Lauer and Randy Kottke gave a flintknapping demonstration at the Southwest State University "Prairie Arts Festival". We received a super newspaper article which highlighted Vern's flintknapping abilities and his participation in this event. The article mentioned that he was a member of the Minnesota Knappers Guild. Way to go, Vern! Let them know that MKG is out there!
If any of you are ever in Marshall, MN, be sure to stop and visit "Gateway to the Past" which is run by Vern and his wife, Linnea. To arrange a tour you can call them at (507) 537-1901.
***MKG member Hugo Nami's work in Patagonia, Argentina was highlighted in an article in the "Mammoth Trumpet", Vol 8, No. 1, December 1992. The article talked about the cave sites that Hugo has been investigating in this southern most region of Argentina since 1979. The article talked briefly about "fishtail points" (see illustration on next page) and Hugo was quoted as saying that "there is much variability in the shapes of the fishtail points". Some have flutes and some have only basal thinning, yet he notes that different forms may be found side by side in the same cave. Tool material is mostly local, from (southern!) glacial deposits. It would be interesting to have a report from Hugo, outlining more information on this point type.
A few MKG members will be traveling to the Fort Osage Spring Knap-In this month. The editor will write about the trip in the next issue.
In our last issue, we reported that we had seen a brief article in "Wanikan", the newsletter for the Ontario Archaeological Society, that talked about a chimpanzee that had been showing signs of primitive tool making. Despite the fact that our more mirthful side was bursting to make comparisons to a few of our flintknapping colleagues, we decided to "play this one completely straight" and sent a letter to the "Wanikan" editor, Andrew Hinshelwood to see if we could find out more details. Andy graciously sent us a copy of the original article "Pan the Tool-Maker: Investigations into the Stone Tool-Making and Tool-Using Capabilities of a Bonobo (Pan paniscus)" by Dr. Nicholas Toth et. al. The article appeared in the Journal of Archaeological Science 1993, 20, 81-91. The article told about the collaboration between paleolithic archaeologists and cognitive psychologists in teaching a bonobo (do you notice how well this rhymes with Romano...I'm sorry!!!... I know I promised not to do that but I just can't help it! Just look at the long arms, the slopping forehead, the barrel chest.... O.K., O.K., O.K.,...no more but I've got to stop calling it a bonobo or I'll transgress again....from now on it is a "chimp"....Ed.) how to make and use a primitive hand axe. The article is too long to present in its entirety here but basically what was done was to show the chimp, Kanzi, how a sharp flake could be manufactured and then used to cut through a cord holding shut a box with food in it. "Kanzi immediately learned the utility of a sharp flake for this activity, and after the first demonstrations he was very interested in receiving a flake (produced by the experimenters in his presence) which he would then use to open the box." Kanzi also developed the ability to discern which flakes were sharp by testing the fragments against his tongue. His own first attempts to imitate the actions of the tool makers were somewhat half-hearted and did not have enough force to drive off a flake but during a 75 day trial, not only did he develop a more forceful blow but began to concentrate the hit near the edge and at an angle such that a suitable flake was more frequently produced. Though Kanzi's skill is less than that of Homo habilis (human ancestors), it will be interesting to see how far he can progress. Experiments are continuing and if additional data becomes available, we will try to report it here in "the Platform"
Flintknapping is an art of hard learned techniques, each of which comes into play when making a point. While many of them can be learned by teaching or by observation, sometimes they can be so subtle that it is difficult to spot them when they are used. And worse yet, the expert may have learned a little trick unconsciously and be unaware that he is doing something that might benefit the novice. Abrading is like that. Too many beginning knappers (and a few experienced ones too) make a couple of passes along the edge of the preform and let it go at that when actually, proper abrading can be used to make big differences in the ease of knapping.
The most important function of abrading is to strengthen the striking platform (Figs. 1a & 1b). Often, abrading from the underside of the blank (the side that the flake comes off of) across the edge will not only strengthen the platform, but will help shape it too (Fig. 2). This is especially true if there is some overhang. This style of abrading will remove some small chips from the top side and further help build the platform by "rolling it down" even more. Of course, you could pressure flake and accomplish the same thing, but abrading is both faster and easier.
Some stone, obsidian for instance, will flake a lot better if abraded both across the edge and lengthwise on the striking platform itself (Fig. 3). The minute scratches on the platform will break up the surface adhesion and the flake will release easier. This also works when pressure flaking, and in addition, provides "bite" for the pressure flaker.
Different situations require different abraders. Rough-out work normally requires a very coarse abrader but will damage the edge of a delicate, nearly completed point. And too much grinding can cause such a dull rounded edge that it becomes impossible to flake at all.
Most knappers use a rough rock or two for their grinding stones, but not all. A few use an old, worn out file. Several use old broken grinding wheels. Some use a coarse whetstone or dressing stone. George Eckland uses a big, flat slab of sandstone which he keeps beside him and rubs the preform on the sandstone instead of the other way around; it saves him considerable time, since he doesn't have to lay down his billet to abrade. Incidentally, a broken cinder block (being dead flat) is excellent for this style of abrading. Broken pieces of cinder block also work well as a hand-held coarse stone. A half-round stone will often reach into a dish-shaped platform easier than will a flat one. A few shallow notches crosswise along the side of a copper billet do a decent job of rough abrading without having to stop and pick up a grinding stone.
Whatever you use to abrade with, spend a little time thinking about how you can do it better. It's worth the effort.
If you are a MKG member and have a business or hobby card, send it to the editor and we will print as many of them as we have space for in future issues.
About the following article:
Minnesota may be divided into three raw material resource regions; west, northeast and southeast - each containing a different set of raw materials. Each region contains different kinds of lithic raw materials, and different kinds of raw material sources. The Platform is the first publication to provide descriptions of the raw materials in each of these areas. Tony Romano, an MKG member, provided the first installment with a description of "Northern Lithics" in 1991. Leroy Gonsior continued the series with "Lithics of Southeast Minnesota" in 1992. This paper completes the series and will be published in four parts in Vol 5. For those of you who may have an academic interest in Kent Bakken's complete manuscript (6 pages) it can be obtained by writing the editor. Please send a SASE (two stamps, typing paper size envelope) -Ed.
Swan River Chert is the most common lithic raw material in most parts of the western Minnesota lithic region. Swan River Chert occurs over a wide area. In the north, it is found from east central Alberta through Saskatchewan and into parts of west central and southern Manitoba. It also occurs in large parts of North Dakota, at least eastern South Dakota, and in western and southern Minnesota. Presumably it is also found in much of central, north central and northeastern Iowa, although this has not yet been confirmed by field survey. No bedrock sources of SRC are known, and the material appears to be available exclusively from glacial till.
The color of SRC is highly variable, ranging from white to neutral grey, blue grey and black, and from pale yellow to orange, brown or red. The color may be mottled, banded or fairly homogeneous.
Because heat treatment increases the range of colors, color is not useful either in recognizing Swan River Chert or in recognizing whether or not the material has been heat treated. One of the most distinctive features of SRC is the texture of the fracture surface. It is usually slightly irregular, and looks somewhat like orange peel. Only a few of the very best quality pieces have a smooth fracture surface, and then probably only after they have been heat treated. These pieces look more like cut wax. Another distinctive feature of SRC is the presence of vugs, or small, irregularly shaped holes. Sometimes these are lined with druse--tiny, colorless quartz crystals. Occasionally the vugs are so numerous that the rock looks like sponge; such pieces are obviously of little value for flint knapping. Vugs also contribute to giving the exterior surface of many SRC cobbles a strange mounded or roppy appearance. Swan River Chert is always slightly to moderately translucent; if you hold a flake up to a lamp, light comes through the rock along the edges or even through the whole flake. Campling (1980), in his thorough description of SRC, further notes that
The material also appears inhomogeneous compositionally. Clear, translucent, and opaque areas are visible. Small (less than 1 mm), opaque, irregular-shaped mottles or spots of brown, red, orange, white or grey color are typically present in Swan River chert. They may be peg-shaped, feather-like, or acicular (needle-like), and may be inter-connected to form a network pattern. The mottles are aggregates of quartz grains. Fracture surfaces are not affected by this apparent inhomogeneity, except where the quartz is very coarsely crystalline. The numerous small vugs and the feather-like aggregates are the most distinctive macroscopic features of Swan River chert.
Maquoketa Chert (Gonsior 1992) could be mistaken for Swan River Chert, although the distribution of the two materials does not seem to overlap. Some pieces of Prairie du Chien Chert also resemble SRC, although a closer examination usually serves to distinguish the two materials. A small percentage of the finest quality SRC looks relatively "chalcedonous," at least after heat treating. This is most commonly pale grey in color, and might conceivably be mistaken for Gunflint Silica (Romano 1991). It lacks the "pepper grain" inclusions which almost always occur in GFS, however. In spite of these few exceptions, in most cases SRC is relatively easy to identify.
The flaking quality of this material is usually not particularly good. Pieces of good quality are fairly rare. In addition, most cobbles are very hard to split open. Evidence from the Upper Rice Lake site indicates that one method used to manage this difficult material was to heat treat whole cobbles before beginning any reduction (Florin 1991). This would presumably make the cobbles easier to split and provide better control in shaping the resulting core.
Swan River Chert was widely used by prehistoric Indians. This was probably not for its flaking qualities, which are mediocre, but because of its abundance. SRC is usually the most common material in the areas where it is found. It is interesting that scraping tools are rarely made out of SRC. Projectile points, knives and other cutting and piercing tools, however, are commonly made from SRC.