Hey hey! Welcome back! Today, we’re answering an age-old question… what the heck is a lithic?
If you hang around in archaeology circles long enough, you’re going to hear the word “lithic” left and right… and, if you’re like me, you’ll be too afraid to ask what a lithic actually is, and you’ll spend over a year wondering and hoping someone will randomly explain it one day because, at this point, too much time has passed, and you’re embarrassed.
Yeah, that was me, but now, it doesn’t have to be you! I’ve assembled this handy dandy little handbook to help you answer all your lithic-related questions. (Well, maybe not all of them, but definitely enough to get you started.)
By the end of this post, you’ll know exactly what a lithic is! You’ll also know how they’re made, what they’re made of, and what they’re made for. You’ll know a little bit about some common features we see in lithics found here in the Southeast, different kinds of sites likely to contain lithics, and why our study of lithics is so important! Finally, you’ll get a little peek into an experimental form of archaeology — one that’s even more hands-on, if you can believe it!
We’ve got a lot of fun facts on deck for you today, so feel free to pull these out at your next party — they’re sure to impress all your guests! You ready? Let’s get started!
Alright! Enough Stalling! Define Lithic Already!
Fair enough. Okay, the definition of lithics is super simple:
Lithics are stone tools. Yup! That’s all there is to it.
Okay, there’s really a lot we can dive into there, but the truth is, the basic definition really is that simple. Going back thousands of years to the very earliest Native Americans (We refer to them by the fancy term Paleoindian peoples from the Paleoindian period), people have been making tools out of stones.
Now, if you’ve been with us for a while, or if you came here from our Instagram post, you know that we talk a lot about PP/Ks, or projectile points/knives. You know that not all arrowheads are PP/Ks, because PP/Ks include any projectile points or knives, so spear heads, atlatl heads, and other sharp, pointy tools fall into this category in addition to arrowheads. However, “lithic” is an appropriate umbrella term for all of them and then some. A lithic could be literally any tool made out of a rock, like scrapers for use in preparing animal hides to be made into clothing or spokeshaves used to manufacture arrows. “Lithic” is a really good, really broad term that covers a giant range of artifacts.
Though there are many different tools that fall into the lithic category, the manufacturing process is broadly the same. The tool maker — called the “knapper” because the process they use is called “flintknapping” or “knapping” — starts with a big chunk of raw stone from a quarry. Now, these raw chunks are called “cobbles,” and they have a rough outer layer called the “cortex.” Once the knapper has a good spall, they will take a tool called a “billet” and repeatedly strike it, knocking off pieces of the core called “flakes.” These early flakes are larger and have more cortex on them. This process exposes the smooth inner stone that will be used to fashion the lithic.
As the process continues, the knapper will continue striking smaller and smaller flakes off the stone to sharpen the stone into a blade. Towards the end of the process, the knapper will pause to grind the surface of the stone with a grindstone to roughen up the surface and make sure the knapping process continues to remove flakes and refine the lithic’s shape. Once the lithic has taken on the shape of the knife, PP/K, or other tool the knapper wants, it’s almost finished. The knapper will knock off a few tiny “thinning flakes” around the edges to sharpen the blade, and then it’s ready to be put to use!
Identifying Lithics — Common Lithic Features and What They Can Tell Us
So we know that lithics are tools, and we know a little bit about how they’re made, but friends, we have so much more to learn! Native Americans — from ancient to contemporary — have long been masters of manufacturing, and this is reflected in the archaeological record. For exactly that reason, there are archaeologists out there who devote their entire careers to focusing on lithics and digging out all the cool information there is to find about them.
For example, all of the steps of the lithic-making process we just talked about can be seen in the archaeological record. Experts have found whole lithics, “preforms” (unfinished or pre-formed lithics), and all levels of flakes from primary to finishing. Beyond that, archaeologists have also identified different site types based on the numbers and types of lithics found at different sites. For example, sites with abundant flakes and preforms are likely to be near quarries because knappers would start forming their lithics at the sites where the stone was gathered before taking them home to finish refining into specific tools. Sites with abundant PP/Ks and knives were likely hunting camps, and locating those can give us a clearer idea of seasonal movements and hunting patterns. Combined with additional data from the sites, including additional artifacts, features, geophysical data, and even, sometimes, carbon dating to determine the site’s age, archaeologists can form pretty clear pictures of how people lived and used the tools they made.
The specific types of stone used to manufacture lithics at a site can also be informative! The most common stone types used for lithic production are chert, quartz, quartzite, agatized coral, chalcedony, jasper, rhyolite, and obsidian. However, if, for example, archaeologists find a large number of lithics at a site in Texas that is made from a type of chert only found in South Carolina, they would conclude that the Indigenous people who lived in those two areas at one time participated in a trade network. What a discovery!
Are you starting to see how studying just this one artifact type can teach us SO MUCH about Native American lifeways? Looking at lithic shapes, production methods, and sites and comparing and contrasting them with others around the country has helped us learn an incredible amount about how Indigenous peoples have lived and how their lifeways have changed and evolved over thousands of years. It’s a huge field of study, and deservedly so! The fact that “arrowhead” is a household term (albeit an inaccurate one, as you now know!) is a testament to the abundance of lithics in the archaeological record and their importance in teaching us about our past.
Cutting-Edge Lithics Archaeology (Pun Totally Intended.)
For decades, archaeologists have been studying lithics to learn as much as they can about Native Americans, ancient and recent — but what about those who want an even more hands-on approach? These intrepid archaeologists are taking part in a study called modern-day flintknapping, where they get to try their hands at making lithics themselves!
You read that right, folks. Plenty of people are still out there making lithics the old fashioned way! Scholars, experimentalists, and preservationists are practicing stone tool manufacture using the methods and techniques people used centuries ago. They’re learning the intricate details of how stone tool formation works and testing out different methods to demonstrate for themselves the changes to tool production evidenced by archaeological studies.
It’s worth noting, too, that archaeologists who practice modern-day lithic making are super careful about ethics. They diligently do their work on surfaces that are easy to clean up, and they make sure to pick up every last flake. We wouldn’t want to disrupt future archaeologists by accidentally tricking them into thinking they’ve found an authentic ancient lithic site!
If you’re interested in trying out some flintknapping for yourself, it might be easier than you think. Universities, non-profits, and other local organizations hold events and workshops all over the country! You could be a quick Google search away from making your own lithic tool and connecting with an ancient tradition — why not try it out??
Lithics Rock
(Booo!) Oh come on, you love my jokes!
Thanks for joining me today! I hope this little introduction to lithics and their importance in archaeology was informative and maybe even a little entertaining… despite my cringe-worthy puns! I learned a lot researching for this one, and I’m hoping you Xplorers learned something, too!
My great thanks to Mike Eichstaedt for sharing his ABUNDANCE of lithics knowledge with me. Mike is a true lithics expert, y’all, and he shared a TON of incredibly useful information with me. I couldn’t have done it without you!
Until next time — if y’all get out there and try any flintknapping classes, I want to see about it! Please tag us @terraxplorations on Instagram and share those pics!
Catch ya next time!
— KB
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