Force is applied to one side of the stone, travels through the stone, and detaches a piece of the stone when it exits another side. It’s a fascinating field of study because regardless of how old the artifacts are or where on the planet they were made, the physics of knapping have been constant since day one. The practice of striking flakes from a stone core and shaping either the flakes or the core into finished tools through further flaking is referred to as knapping, and the sets of knapping behaviors, techniques, and resulting artifacts hominids have produced over the past million years are collectively referred to as flaked stone technology. If not, they struck another and another until they had what they needed, or shaped the flake into a desired tool form by striking additional smaller flakes from its edges. If the flake they created was suitable for the task at hand, they could use it as is. If they needed a sharp edge, their best option was to pick up a rock and hit it with another rock to break off a flake of stone. The people who lived in southern Arizona before the first Spaniards trekked through in 1694 did not have access to metal tools. Now think about performing those tasks without steel or iron. Maybe you sliced up a peach to make your yogurt palatable or fired up a Dremel to carve some stone beads for your Etsy shop. Think about the last time you used a metal tool. Sliva, Desert’s senior flaked stone analyst, has thoughts about an often-maligned set of stone artifacts. Hohokam Flake Tools and the Eye of the Beholder
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