ArticleScientific reports2019
Thermal engineering of stone increased prehistoric toolmaking skill.
Article in Scientific reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Reconstructing hammerstone size flake by flake: an experimental approach.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2025Article
- Ethnographic toolstone heat treatment reveals distinctive motives and patterns of material transformation.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Design and development of a sensorized hammerstone for accurate force measurement in stone knapping experiments.PloS one · 2024Article
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- Mechanical properties of lithic raw materials from Kazakhstan: Comparing chert, shale, and porphyry.PloS one · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Intentional heat treating of toolstone has been documented to have begun at least by 70 K BP; however, the advantages of such treatment have been debated for decades. There are two schools of thought with regard to its purpose. One, is that it merely reduces the force required for flake propagation. A second is that it also alters flake morphological properties. We systematically tested these hypotheses by generating flakes from cores exposed to three different temperatures (ambient, 300 °C, and 350 °C) using automated propagation procedures that bypassed any human agency. While the force propagation magnitude is altered by heat treatment, the flakes were not. We examined these flakes according to nine measures of morphology. None differed significantly or systematically within the three categories. While our results confirm that heat treatment does reduce the force needed for flake propagation, they also demonstrate that such treatment has no significant effect on major morphological aspects of flake form.
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Registered trials
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