1999 Lithic - Chipped Stone Debitage

CHIPPED STONE DEBITAGE

'Harold' - Structure N10-27

Chipped stone debitage is residue resulting from the manufacture or retouch of implements. The sample described here was deposited and accumulated in

Figure #4

Lamanai Project Lot Record Form.

the form of a midden on and near N10-27 or 'Harold'. The attributes chosen to describe this sample allow some interpretations to be made regarding methods of manufacture and stages of production of stone tools at Lamanai. The debitage was sorted, counted (CT), weighed (WT) in grams, and classified with the following attributes (Pope 1994:153, Shafer 1983:239-240, Sharer and Ashmore 1993:347-352).

Flakes: the detachment from a core (or rock), due to being struck by another usually harder rock producing a fragment by way of a conchoidal fracture, which leaves a flake scar on the core.

Indeterminate Flakes: flakes that cannot be distinguished as retouch or thinning flakes, shatters, or core trimmings.

Retouch Flakes: a more refined method of flake removal used through a pressure flaking technique that produces small flakes with an almost completely round body.

Thinning Flakes: long, thin parallel-sided flakes that are a result of either indirect percussion or pressure flaking, usually at least twice as long as the width.

Core: nodule of lithic material which is struck in order to produce flakes and tools, a core is made up of a striking platform at the proximal end and will contain flake scars where flakes have been removed.

Core Trimmer: also termed secondary and primary decortication flakes, large flakes that are usually removed by direct percussion from a rock (or core), flakes often contain secondary or primary cortex which can indicate the first stages of tool production.

Complete: is defined by its wholeness, all evidence of manufacturing technology present (bulb of percussion, hinge, dorsal and bulbar surfaces complete) no fracturing/breakage has occurred.

Incomplete: fracturing/breakage present, a portion of the material is missing (i.e. only medial portion of a flake, no bulb of percussion, or only the distal end of a projectile point).

Primary Cortex: the outer weathering or patination of the chert material resulting in a very uneven rough outer dorsal surface that is present over more than 50% of the flake covering the entire dorsal surface.

Secondary Cortex: cortex (see above) that results on flakes from further removal of the cortex from a core, secondary refers specifically to 50% or less of the flake or dorsal surface of the flake as being covered with cortex.

Heat: as used here refers to chert material that shows either pot-lidding (drastic temperature change in chert results in the spontaneous removal of small rounded potlids, the scar left on the chert is small, inverted, and rounded) or crazing (drastic change in temperature resulting in uneven checkered type pattern on chert surface).

Chert debitage was examined from lots LA1108, LA1113, 1114, 1115, and LA1119 and 1120 (Table 1) the majority recovered from midden contexts located either over the lower front (west) stairs or on the southwest side of N10-27. Results of the analysis revealed the highest occurrence to be indeterminant flakes. Counts and weights by lot are:

LA1108	186 each	501 grams
LA1113	102 each	201 grams
LA1114	612 each	1440 grams
LA1119	46 each	111 grams
LA1120	1 each	1 gram

A total of 947 indeterminant flakes were recovered from the five lots with 94, or 10%, being thermally altered. The majority of the indeterminant flakes, 612, or 65%, of the total are from LA1114, a midden located on the southwest front and accumulated up against N10-27. Of the 612 chert flakes recovered from LA1114 11% have been burned or heated.

The five lots surrounding N10-27 contained 742 or 78% indeterminate flakes with no cortex. Of these, 79% are from midden contexts and not an activity area that could possibly indicate stone tool manufacturing. Due to the subtractive nature of lithic manufacturing, regardless of context, some evidence of production is always identifiable. The presence of 742 noncortical flakes generally indicates the last stages in the manufacturing process of stone tool production. A higher concentration of noncortical flakes could indicate a presence of only the latter stages of tool production, not the series of steps involved in the entire process. For Pulltrouser Swamp in Northern Belize, Shafer (1983:240) argued that the virtual absence of primary flaking debitage in association with the raised field system is evidence that chert artifacts were brought to the site as finished tools. Nassaney (1996:208) discussed two types of stone manufacturing processes: core tool and flake tool. The core tool technique produces large amounts of primary and secondary decortification flakes as a result of the initial stages of tool production. With the recovery of only 49 primary core trimming flakes out of 1,127 recovered from the N10-27 area we would, according to Nassaney, be looking at the flake tool manufacturing process.

Hinge fractures were not formally recorded for but it was noted a fair amount of the flakes recovered from the N10-27 area exhibited them. Hester and Shafer (1991:155-156) identified at Colha, in contrast to Late Preclassic and Late Classic debitage from workshop areas, the distinct use of soft hammer percussion, which produces flakes with a greater number of hinge fractures. This is evident by two factors 1) the recovery of numerous antler billets utilized in the method of soft hammer percussion and 2) the technique utilizing antler billets led to a higher number of hinge fractures on flakes. Although hinge fractures were not formally analyzed for in this sample three items are evident 1) the debitage examined from the midden contained a fair amount of hinge fractures, 2) the presence of antler billets (LA1114) and, 3) recovery of ceramics dating to Early Postclassic. It may be the case at Lamanai, as it was at Colha, due to the above factors, that the soft hammer technique for the production and reworking of stone tools occurred more frequently than the hard hammer technique during the Postclassic.

Other debitage and chert material recovered on or near N10-27 includes 65 thinning flakes, 11 retouch flakes, 1 tested cobble, one primary core, and one exhausted core. This material will be discussed further after more excavations have occurred.

Table 1. Chert debitage from 'Harold' structure N10-27

LOT NUMBER	LA1108		LA1113		LA1114		LA1115		LA1119

ASSESSMENT	Midden		Core		Midden		Midden		Midden
	CT	WT	CT	WT	CT	WT	CT	WT	CT	WT
Interminate Flakes
ind flk-comp-no cort	38	77	6	25	132	274	9	24	19	41
ind-flk-comp-sec cort	32	140	11	55	67	223
ind-flk-comp-heat-no cort					5	20
ind-flk-comp-heat-sec cort			2	4
ind-flk-incomp-no cort	79	120	58	65	285	551	36	71	18	32
ind-flk-incomp-prim cort					9	21			3	6
ind-flk-incomp-sec cort	21	52	18	35	48	192	4	10	6	32
ind-flk-incomp-heat-no cort	5	18	7	17	42	75
ind-flk-incomp-heat-prim cort
ind-flk-incomp-heat-sec cort	10	93			23	83
ind-flk-incomp-watwor-no cort	1	1			1	1
TOTALS	186	501	102	201	612	1440	49	105	46	111

Core Trimming
core trim-comp-sec cort	2			26	509
core trim-comp-sec cort-heat					2	4
core trim-incomp-sec cort-heat							3	83
core trim-incomp-no cort					1	21
core trim-incomp-prim cort	1	8	2	2	7	101	2	13
core trim-incomp-sec cort							3	34
TOTALS	3	50	2	2	36	635	8	130	0	0

Thinning Flakes
thin flk-comp-no cort	8	3	5	11	16	22			1	1
thin flk-comp-sec cort					4	12
thin flk-incomp-no cort	6	6	2	1	13	16	2	7	2	3
thin flk-incomp-sec cort					2	3			1	4
thin flk-incomp-no cort-heat					3	9
TOTALS	14	9	7	12	38	62	2	7	4	8

Retouch Flakes
retch flk-comp-no-cort	2	1			4	1
retch flk-incomp-no-cort					5	1
TOTALS	2	1	0	0	9	2	0	0	0	0

Tested Cobble	1	43
TOTALS	1	43	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Core
cor-sec-cort					3	359
TOTALS	0	0	0	0	3	359	0	0	0	0

Exhausted Core	1	67
TOTALS	1	67	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

GRAND TOTALS	207	671	111	215	698	2498	59	242	50	119

Debitage from Structures N12-12, N10-15, N10-28, Plaza [N10]3 and the 'Giant Midden'

Debitage from structures N12-12, N10-28, N10-15 and Plaza[N10]3 mainly consist of flakes recovered in post abandonment accumulation, collapse, and core. Due to the secondary contexts generally only tabulations were conducted. Table 2 breaks down the operations by lot and identifies assessments, counts, and weights. The majority of the debitage from the 1999 field season was recovered in the N10-27 midden and the second largest amount was found during examination of structure N12-12 in the southern settlement area of Lamanai just north of the second Spanish church. The majority of the debitage was recovered as post abandonment accumulation and collapse, except examination of the north side, on and around the structure. A total of 615 debitage flakes were recorded with a total weight of 2577.4 grams. The largest amount of debitage was recovered on the north side on N12-12 (LA1181) in what has been identified by Pendergast and Graham (Personal communication 1999) as midden material. A trench was opened up between the two Spanish churches (OP99-5, LA1184 and LA1187) with recovery of only 36 debitage flakes.

Work conducted in the 'Ottawa' area (N10-15, N10-28, and Plaza[N10]3) consisted of 23 lots and produced just 75 debitage flakes. The majority of the work consisted of
core removal, which generally tends to contain less interpretable material culture. One exception to this is LA1310, which has been assessed as a possible midden as a dark soil stratum above the 'boulders' (core) of Plaza [N10]3 was recovered. This lot contained 7 debitage flakes and may be midden material in association with the remnants of a small Late Postclassic platform.

Clearing efforts at Plaza [N10]3 mandated minimal excavation to be conducted in the 'Giant Midden' that abuts N10-9 and extends both north and east and is located east of the plaza just south of 'Ottawa'. A total of 27 debitage flakes along with a large amount of ceramic sherds (1,021), some faunal material (see Stanchly this volume), and censor fragments were recovered from this rich midden.

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