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Originally posted by sardion2000
Well some African Cultures had Iron and Steel making capabilities before anyone else(thousands of years before anyone else)
Originally posted by ChakotayI stumbled upon this factoid after a lifetime of 'trying to make arrowheads'. Mine always look like, well, triangular rocks. I could not understand how anyone could shape a Clovis point, with delicate symmetrical fluting.
Now I understand.
The earliest humans heat-treated silicate rocks under controlled conditions- using a technology akin to growing silicon memory blanks.
Originally posted by Chakotay
Thanks, Sardion. I've also learned that many ancient stone projectile points were finished with copper tools.
Originally posted by Byrd
I can cut copper with any flint blade I care to knap out but have never seen copper that could knap flint or glass.
Originally posted by Chakotay
Hi Byrd. There is an entire chalcolithic technology based upon copper billets (where we usually use elk antler bases) for striking off flakes and copper pressure flakers (where we usually use antler tines) for finishing.
My main point is that, I bet if you asked any hundred americans- or Indians- not one would know that 'arrowheads' were often the product of purposefully heat-treated rock.
Now from a psychological perspective, I think this kind of mindful, scientific technique argues for a greater intellectual capacity- and perhaps antiquity- than we ordinarily credit early humans with. I have grown up making arrowheads with elders- but most used obsidian, or bottle bottoms that need no heat treating.
I am amazed that the mammoth hunters developed such a sophisticated technique in a survival setting.
I make Clovis blades now. It took me more than four decades of study to master the technique. I want to try using some memory core melts for cores to leave the archaeologists of the far future something to mull over
I am in awe of these ancient humans.