Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 330, Issue 6004, Pages 659-662Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1195550
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Funding
- Wenner-Gren Foundation
- European Research Council [249587]
- National Research Foundation/Department of Science and Technology
- Norwegian Research Council
- PROTEA French-South Africa exchange program
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Pressure flaking has been considered to be an Upper Paleolithic innovation dating to similar to 20,000 years ago (20 ka). Replication experiments show that pressure flaking best explains the morphology of lithic artifacts recovered from the similar to 75-ka Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa. The technique was used during the final shaping of Still Bay bifacial points made on heat-treated silcrete. Application of this innovative technique allowed for a high degree of control during the detachment of individual flakes, resulting in thinner, narrower, and sharper tips on bifacial points. This technology may have been first invented and used sporadically in Africa before its later widespread adoption.
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