Differences in the mechanical properties of raw materials can exert significant influences on resulting patterns of flake breakage within a debitage assemblage. A recent technique of debltage analysis based on flake breakage categories (Sullivan and Rozen 1985] is used to demonstrate these effects in archaeological and experimental situations. These cases demonstrate significant variation in flake breakage patterns that can be attributed to raw material differences. Therefore, attempts to use these breakage patterns to infer past human behavior or technological process must control for the effects of different raw materials.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Amick et al. (1997) studied this question.