Classical Studies 2700B

 

NOTE:  On Tuesday, 12th January, 2010, we shall begin with about 10-15 minutes on the last part of the Greeks plus the Romans; so please bring the class print-out from last Thursday’s lecture.

CLM

 

STONE Lecture 1

 

 

Please refer initially to the first page of the Introductory lectures file.

 

Note the following about the Paleolithic Age:

            Lower Paleolithic:  percussion flaking > core tools (e.g., pear-shaped hand axe)

 

            Middle Paleolithic: pressure flaking > flake tools (e.g., scrapers, points and perforators); use of fire begins in this period.

 

            Upper Paleolithic:  prismatic flaking > blade tools (e.g., knives, burins, and other items made of bone and horn)

 

Definition:  a  blade is flake of flint at least twice as long as it is wide.

 

Human evolution during Paleolithic Age:

 

            Lower Paleolithic: first “people” Homo Erectus (= “upright walking person”)

 

            Middle Paleolithic: Neandertalers ( not now considered direct ancestor to Homo Sapiens, though there may have been some interbreeding between them and wholly modern humans).

 

            Upper Paleolithic: modern humans (Homo Sapiens); in W. Europe called Cro-Magnon people.

 

 

Slide demonstration: flint working (called “knapping”) using prismatic flaking and other techniques, as in Upper Paleolithic. Dr Jacques Tixier of Paris (pictures from late 1960s)

 

Definition: a burin is for engraving and chiseling; it us a tool for  making other tools

 

Question of the efficiency of the varying flint-working techniques. LP > c. 5-20cm of cutting edge for each pound (454 gm) of flint.; MP > c. 1 metre of cutting edge…; UP > c.12 metres of cutting edge… .

 

Hunting techniques of Upper Paleolithic. Invention of “spear-thrower” (Aztec “atlatl”; Australian aboriginal “womera”). Its advantages.