Question

how is percussion flaking essential to the Oldowan industry?

Answer 1

Answer:

Efficient use of this percussion flaking technique requires a strong precision grip. Humans are the only living primates that have this anatomical trait. Probably the most important tools in the Oldowan tradition were sharp-edged stone flakes produced in the process of making the core tools.

Answer 2

Percussion flaking essential to the Oldowan industry

• There is still considerable debate over ancient tools. Oldowan assemblages were the first to be categorised, and Mary Leakey was the first to do so. She based her method on prescribed use. There were choppers, scrapers, and pounders in the system. The difficulty of presuming usage from stone artefacts has led to more recent classifications of Oldowan assemblages that concentrate primarily on manufacturing.
• The tri-modal categories of "Flaked Pieces" (cores/choppers), "Detached Pieces" (flakes and pieces), "Pounded Pieces" (cobbles used as hammerstones, etc.), and "Unmodified Pieces" are an example from Isaac et al (manuports, stones transported to sites) Oldowan tools are commonly referred to as "pebble tools," so called because the blanks used to make them already resemble the finished item in pebble form.

• These articles discuss how some Oldowan tools may have been discovered as stones with naturally occurring shapes that determine their best usage, or may have been made as such. An almost spherical hammerstone is used to create a conchoidal fracture with sharp edges that can be used for a variety of tasks in order to create the general shape of an Oldowan tool on the edge, or striking platform, of a suitable core rock. Lithic reduction is a common name for the procedure. The flake is the chip that was broken by the hit.
• If the aforementioned requirements for the basic stone are met before modification, some of these flakes can be employed as tools. A distinctive bulb with tiny fractures on the fracture surface can be seen below the point of contact on the core. The flake is proof.

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