Exploring the Manufacture of Bifacial Stone Tools from the Middle Rio Negro Basin, Uruguay: An Experimental Approach

.HUGO G. NAMI

Ethnoarchaeology Journal of Archaeological, Ethnographic and Experimental Studies

Routledge. Taylon & Francis Group

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2017 vol. 9 p. 53 - 80

1944-2890

The Río Negro is the most important inner fluvial course of theUruguay Republic. Along its basin, the archaeological recordis characterized by flaked stone tools of remarkable workmanship.As part of a long-term experimental program to explore andunderstand diverse aspects of lithic technologies from theAmericas, this paper reports an experiment devoted to reproducingcarefully reduced bifacial knives to explore the techniques andstages of manufacture from obtaining the blank to the finishedproduct. Resulting from the experiment a reduction sequencemanufacturing model is proposed. It takes into account thetechniques, flaking implements, stages of manufacture and othersignificant data useful to discuss topics related to the traditionaltechnological knowledge involved in the manufacturing process ofthe studied bifaces. In light of this investigation, various issuesrelated to the reduction trajectory reflected in the archaeologicalrecord are discussed.