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Topic: Biface


In the News (Sun 29 Nov 09)

  
  Figures -- A Theory for Flake Creation
Biface is bent because a perpendicular force is applied to the platform.
The yellow is the static mode region and the purple is the dynamic mode region.
The darker purple is the region of hinge flakes caused by the second harmonic in the core's vibration.
www.ele.net /algor/flake_creation/SD_figures.htm   (1243 words)

  
 PHOENIX OBSIDIAN DESIGNS - Comparative Collections
Also included are the seperated tertiary stage percussion flakes made during the shaping of the flake into the initial preformed percussion biface using a soft hammerstone.
A 2" to 3" Percussion Biface with all its associated tertiary percussion flaking debitage produced during the shaping of a initial percussion flake into this biface.
This is the complete debitage from the reduction of a core to a biface by only working on one face, i.e.
www.obsidiandesigns.com /comparative.html   (469 words)

  
  The Lowe Biface   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
In February 1997, a large ovate biface, believed to be a Paleoindian tool, was brought to the attention of the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources, by Alan Lowe of Randolph, New Hampshire.
It was thinned and initially shaped by removing large flat, lateral flakes, 3.5 cm to 5 cm in length, that extend to the midsection (or crest) of the biface.
After thinning, the entire edge of the biface was uniformly trimmed on both dorsal and ventral surfaces, with the removal of small flakes between 3 mm to 7 mm long.
doe.ncia.net /~kmasters/lb.htm   (336 words)

  
 Biface - Biocrawler   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
In archaeology, a biface is a two-sided stone tool, manufactured through a process of lithic reduction, that displays flake scars on both sides.
Class I consists of large, thick bifaces reduced from cores or thick flakes; these are referred to as blanks.
It must be emphasized that, while Class IV bifaces are referred to as "formalized tools", bifaces from any stage of a lithic reduction sequence may be used as tools.
www.biocrawler.com /encyclopedia/Biface   (183 words)

  
 Sweetwater Biface
Biface is the descriptive word that is used when the item being described is not any one of a multitude of named artifact types like Table Rock point, Harahey Knife, Adz or whatever.
The wider the biface is the harder it is to strike off large thinning flakes across the midline to thin it down.
This biface was broken in the center by pressure flaking it to thin plus the interaction of a natural flaw in the stone.
lithiccastinglab.com /gallery-pages/2001januarysweetwatercast.htm   (503 words)

  
 University of Nevada, Reno :: Sundance Archaeological Research Fund
Bifaces present in the three assemblages include edged (early stage) bifaces, thinned (middle stage) bifaces, preform (late stage) bifaces, and finished bifaces (Figure 10), indicating that manufacture and retooling of bifaces occurred at the sites.
When we break-down biface types by raw material, we find that at the three sites, virtually all edged, thinned, and preform bifaces are made on local basalt and ccs, while virtually all finished and broken bifacial point bases are made on exotic obsidian.
That bifaces were being utilized as cores can also be seen in the fact that in the Harlips and Mizpah Point assemblages a high proportion of tools were being manufactured on bifacial thinning flakes, clearly the products of biface core technologies (Figure 12).
www.unr.edu /cla/anthro/sundance/goshute.asp   (1623 words)

  
 CaliforniaPrehistory.com -- Appendix to Archaeological Investigations at CA-SLO-692,
in the Nacimiento Lake Area, ...
The biface edged flake retains a portion of the edge of the biface from which it was struck.
This method of biface manufacture began with such pieces as a whole cobble, an unmodified flake (commonly referred to as a flake blank), or with a tabular blank quarried from a geologic stratum.
A typology of biface thinning stages based on the degree of biface refinement in outline, cross section and patterning of flakes scars was used to describe the specimens in the collections reported below.
www.californiaprehistory.com /reports02/rep0036app.html   (7319 words)

  
 Mount Rainier National Park: Environment, Prehistory & Archaeology (Appendix B)
Biface flakes are produced during biface edging, shaping, and thinning (mid to late stage biface manufacture).
However, most identifiable biface flakes are the result of the later stages of biface shaping and thinning (mid to late stage).
While biface flakes result from primarily percussion and early stage pressure biface shaping, retouch flakes are usually the result of biface finishing and tool maintenance.
www.nps.gov /mora/ncrd/archaeology/appb.htm   (1314 words)

  
 CaliforniaPrehistory.com -- Analysis of the Flaked Stone Assemblage from CA-SLO-762, Cambria, San Luis Obispo County, ...
Bifaces were manufactured by percussion thinning of flakes and a limited number of tabular cobbles of Monterey chert.
The debitage types recorded by this study included: 1) flakes retaining a biface edge; 2) flakes with cortex; 3) angular waste; 4) flakes with single-facet striking platforms; 5) flakes with multiple-facet striking platforms that cannot be shown to be biface edge remnants; and 6) bipolar flakes.
At CA-COL-61 the obsidian was primarily from biface thinning and the curve agreed with this even though direct freehand percussion manufacture of flakes from cores, bipolar percussion reworking of both flakes and bifaces as well as the pressure flaking and notching of bifaces were also evident in the debitage (Rondeau 1990).
www.californiaprehistory.com /reports01/rep0019.html   (10601 words)

  
 Cache-2
My speculation is that to section the biface after notching would require supporting the biface on edge, with the tip upwards and striking the notch face in roughly the direction a split was desired.
Biface 4 is an unfluted triangular preform measuring 15.7 cm long by 46 mm wide and 15 mm thick.
Biface 6 measures 10.3 cm long by 48 mm wide and 13.5 mm thick and is tapered at one surviving end that is interpreted as a face of the original chert quarry blank.
www.stonedagger.com /Cache-2.html   (3459 words)

  
 Module 4 (Introduction) - The Archaeological Potential of Secondary Contexts
The dominance of straight edges for all the major biface types at Broom further suggests that efficient cutting edges were required, regardless of the overall biface form (it is possible that the different combinations of cutting edges and biface forms might have afforded a wide range of task-related ergonomic tools).
A wide range of biface types are represented on these asymmetrical forms, suggesting either that the asymmetry was an unintentional product of the knapping process (and that biface form was significant); or vice-versa (that the asymmetry was an intended end goal, and was considered to be more important than biface form).
The remainder of the bifaces were derived from a wider source area, although there was very little material that could be demonstrated to have been transported from further than c.
www.personal.rdg.ac.uk /~sgs04rh/Aggregates/arch-mod4.htm   (1407 words)

  
 Large Maya Culture Biface
This biface was probably made entirely with the use of a stone hammer stone.
Large bifaces have been found on Stone Age sites in the Americas near locations where large quantities of workable stone was available.
The largest bifaces in North America are found on the west coast in California where late Stone Age people were using large pieces of obsidian (volcanic glass).
www.lithiccastinglab.com /gallery-pages/2004marchlargemayabifacepage1.htm   (519 words)

  
 Bi-Face - AOL Music
In archaeology, a biface is a two-sided stone tool, manufactured through a...
Un biface est un outil de pierre taillée caractéristique des périodes anciennes...
In archaeology, a biface is a two-sided stone tool, manufactured through a process of lithic reduction...
music.aol.com /artist/bi-face/173648/main   (120 words)

  
 Lithics Glossary
Bevel, Biface A bevel which was formed by removing flakes from both faces of an edge.
Biface In reference to projectiles or tools, biface describes those examples which have been worked and exhibit flake scars along both faces or sides.
Biface serrations have flakes removed from both sides of the blade edge while uniface serrations have flakes removed from only one face of an edge.
members.aol.com /artgumbus/glossary.html   (7645 words)

  
 OVAC - Understanding Stone Tool Technology
For the purposes of this study, two technological variables are used to define the organization of chipped tool manufacture: (1) the level of biface manufacturing complexity, and (2) the types of transport stages used.
A lithic transport stage is defined as the point within the manufacturing process at which lithic material is prepared for transport and the point at which the reduction process is resumed at a given location on the landscape.
Biface complexity is defined as the relative intensity of biface thinning necessary to convert a piece of lithic material into a bifacial tool.
www.ovacltd.com /us_stt.shtml   (415 words)

  
 Bulletin No.4
The group A biface pestle is either round or oval in outline and rectangular in cross section (Figs.
The grinding surfaces of the C group pestles are convex, strikingly different from those on the A and B group pestles.
Quern of biface type (1), stone axes of chipped (2) and polished (5) types, and abrading stones (3,4) (Scale 1/2).
www.um.u-tokyo.ac.jp /publish_db/Bulletin/no04/no04006.html   (1255 words)

  
 Early Paleolithic Art, Religion and Semiotics
In this light it may be seen how even the earliest bifaces offered their makers and users a selective advantage in evolution, or at least were an expression of that advantage.
Microwear studies indicate that while some bifaces were used in the same way as flakes, i.e., for butchery, meat-cutting, woodworking and cutting of plants, others showed no use at all.
Since these bifaces reflect a new cognitive sense of symmetry, one of their meaning-functions could have been as symbols of symmetry and cooperation among social groups and the 'reparation of that symmetry'.
www.originsnet.org /mindep.html   (2384 words)

  
 1999 Lithic - Chipped Stone Tools
Lenticular bifaces are a fairly common occurrence throughout Belize at sites with Postclassic activity including Santa Rita (Shafer and Hester 1988:115), Barton Ramie (Willey et al 1965:421) and Colha (Hester and Shafer 1991:158).
The second tool recovered was an oval biface (LA1114/8 Figure 5 and Table 4) similar to specimens recovered from El Pozito referred to as biface celts by Hester et al (1991:72) due to the identification of polishing and bashing.
These oval bifaces generally date to the same time period as the other lithic material recovered in the midden located on the southwest front of N10-27, Early to Late Postclassic.
www.angelfire.com /pro/westminster_gallery   (834 words)

  
 The Afon Ystwyth Experiment Archaeology Project
Replica bifaces were emplaced across the Afon Ystwyth channel and recovered (where possible) after transportation.
Replica bifaces were emplaced on the vegetated floodplain, point bars and midstream bars and recovered (where possible) after transportation and/or modification by aerial and sub-aerial processes.
1.3 Bifaces may be subject to abrasion development while in phases of partial burial (Figure 2), as well as during periods of active transportation.
www.personal.rdg.ac.uk /~sgs04rh/AfonYstwyth/Home.htm   (1514 words)

  
 Definition of biface - Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Learn more about "biface" and related topics at Britannica.com
Find more about "biface" instantly with Live Search
See a map of "biface" in the Visual Thesaurus
www.m-w.com /cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=biface   (26 words)

  
 Archaeology Wordsmith
biface may be oval, triangular, or almond-shaped in form and characterized by axial symmetry, even if marks made by use are more plentiful on one face or on one edge.
The cutting edge could be straight or jagged and the tool used as a pick, knife, scraper, or even weapon.
These flakes typically were removed from an unfinished biface (or blank) in order to make it thinner.
www.reference-wordsmith.com /cgi-bin/lookup.cgi?category=&where=headword&terms=biface   (290 words)

  
 Flaked obsidian biface   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
A 'biface' is a tool with 2 surfaces and, usually, a more-or-less continuously worked edge around the perimeter.
A biface itself may have been used as a tool, or as a source of useable flakes (a core), or it may simply have been lost or disgarded unfinished, at some stage in the process of tool manufacture.
Sometimes, when archaeologists cannot be sure if a stone tool was a projectile point, a knife, or other tool, it is simply called a 'biface'.
www.sfu.ca /archaeology/museum/ask/a2.htm   (90 words)

  
 ArchNet - Lithics
The example on the left is similar in form to a blade or projectile point.
The example on the right is a larger amorphous biface fragment.
Bifaces like these are considered expedient tools which lack standardized forms.
archnet.asu.edu /archives/lithic/tools/biface.htm   (37 words)

  
 First Americans Image Gallery - Late Paleoindian Biface Cache, Texas
First Americans Image Gallery - Late Paleoindian Biface Cache, Texas
Browse the Center's extensive collection of archaeological photos
Excavations at biface cache site in northern Harris County, Texas
www.centerfirstamericans.org /photos/thumbnails.php?album=9   (28 words)

  
 Welcome to Biface.info, the use of hand-axes in prehistoric times
The bifaces shown on this site are unsalable, they serve only for orientation to purchase similar artifacts.
All artifacts shown are taken from the private collection of Ernst-Dieter Henze.
Bifaces, (Hand-axes) are, apart from simple Chopper and Pepple tools, surely the oldest tools of the early human on earth.
www.biface.info   (617 words)

  
 Frossay - Biface acheuléen
Universel, le biface permettait d'assommer et de dépecer le gibier, de briser les os pour en extraire la moelle, de travailler le bois, de casser les noix, de creuser le sol… Celui de Frossay pèse 734 g.
Sous l'endroit où reposait le biface, Alain COSTE a remarqué un lit de petits galets.
Le biface en reste le plus ancien témoignage.
www.mairie-frossay.fr /patrimoine/histoire/biface.php   (405 words)

  
 [No title]   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
Two biface items were classifiable as semi-serrated lanceolate forms; one was marked by extensive impact damage.
Several of the other biface forms included tips, medial sections, and bases that were not inconsistent with the two diagnostic items.
Two of the biface fragments were minimally modified forms retaining much of the original flake blank surfaces.
users.ap.net /~bpacs/ala42.html   (1180 words)

  
 OVAC - Lithic Technology
Illustration of biface (projectile point) reduction trajectories: beginning with the selection of lithic material and ending with a single series of biface rejuvenation.
The levels or intensity (complexity) of biface reduction and stages of stone transport (transport stages) influence debris quantity and formed artifact types.
All things being equal in terms of the number of bifaces made, far more debris is generated from early transport stage than late transport stages.
www.ovacltd.com /lithic.shtml   (222 words)

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