Metin Eren, Ph.D., associate professor and director of archeology at Kent State University, demonstrates flintknapping.Credit: Kent State University
Posted on 06/09/2023 9:29:58 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Every day, hundreds of stone artifact enthusiasts around the world sit down and begin striking a stone with special tools attempting to craft the perfect arrowhead or knife. This craft is known as flintknapping, and for most, it is a skilled hobby or art form that was thought to occasionally require bandages or stitches.
However, new research suggests flintknapping is far more dangerous than previously understood. And for early humans who were without the modern conveniences of hospitals, antibiotics, treated water and band-aids, a more severe cut could get infected and be life-threatening...
They found Nicholas Gala, at the time a Kent State undergraduate anthropology major working in Kent State's Experimental Archaeology Lab, who was looking for a senior honors thesis project...
Flintknapping is the method of breaking, flaking and shaping stone tools, such as points for arrow tips or sharp blades for an ax or knife. Archaeological evidence for knapping goes back more than 3 million years...
The researchers learned that knapping is far more dangerous than they previously imagined. Among some of the most severe injuries reported by flintknappers included running a flake across their bone like a wood planar, cuts deep into the periosteum of the bone, and the need for a tourniquet after piercing their ankle with a flake...
Thirty-five people surveyed said they have had small stone flakes fly into one of their eyes. The researchers also shared a historical account of William Henry Holmes who disabled his entire left arm from flintknapping back in the late 1890s. Several grislier examples are reported in the open-access study.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
Metin Eren, Ph.D., associate professor and director of archeology at Kent State University, demonstrates flintknapping.Credit: Kent State University
They found Nicholas Gala, at the time a Kent State undergraduate anthropology major working in Kent State's Experimental Archaeology Lab , whose new ickname is "One-eyed Peg-leg Lefty."
More topics coming up this week:
https://phys.org/news/2023-05-neanderthal-human-fire-making-methods-intelligence.html
https://phys.org/news/2023-05-neanderthals-synthetic-material-underground-distillation.html
More rabbits:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/prehistoric-tools-uncovered-wales-bunnies-180977350/
If you survived back then, your hands were as tough as leather gardening gloves.
Machinists and metal workers know all about this.
That is the truth. If you don’t want all of those cuts, abrasions, and slivers in your hand, go find something else to do.
I’m also sure that their sanitary habits could’ve been a problem as well. So, what’s the point of this Thesis/study? Maybe this guy is wrong and they knew how to protect themselves?
If only the Consumer Product Safety Commission had been around back then....
Starving to death vs flint-knapping injury. Hmmm. What to choose?
Probably shouldn’t knap on your groin. Maybe that is why “flintknapper” never caught on as a surname like “smith” or “fletcher”.
They probably just hired neanderthals to do the jobs they didn’t want. They were stupid enough to work for little pay while unaware of the danger, which is why there are none left.
Big Flint insisted on importing cheap Homo erectus labor to keep the sweatcaves running.
I’ve heard it said that if you ain’t bleedin’, you ain’t knappin’.
Interesting tool....
It was probably higher on the list than you think. More than a few had flakes and chips fly up into their eye, and infection was the leading cause of death back then. Even as recently as the old west, a minor cut might be it for you.
being eaten by a sabre tooth tiger was also high on the list of things that can kill a caveman (sorry, ‘caveperson’)
Nicely done.
It’s a piece of bullsht. I was taught by Mohawks how to chip flint for arrowheads, scrapers, axeheads, etc when I was 8 years old. There was an ancient worked flintbed in my barnyard. Did these idiots even ask a Pawnee or Sioux person? What a bunch of morons.
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