Advice for who might be tempted to take up flint knapping ...

First, I will remind you of what Jacques Tixier (a famous prehistorian, passed in 2018) told me during my first visit to his laboratory at the IPH (Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, in Paris) in 1972: "Don't plunder the deposits of raw materials, don't pollute them by dumping sizeable waste (even scraps) because they will quickly become patinated and they could be confused with archaeological vestiges" (this has already happened...).

But also: "You have to choose. If you have a real scientific interest, if you are ready to make the effort to study and write, I will give you some advice. If you just want to have fun, or worse, copy for the sake of copying things and even resell them, you don't belong with us" (prehistorians).

Next, here is a little text I wrote some time ago for the attendees of the introductory courses in lithic technology that I have (co-)organised these last few years, courses intended exclusively for the training of students and doctoral students in Prehistory, really engaged in the study of lithic collections.

Dear fellow archaeologists, Dearest students,

We, the organisers of this course, would like to offer you the terms of a sort of "moral contract" regarding the very particular didactic approach we shared in this course: the practice of knapping hard rocks "in the prehistoric way".

Therefore:

we agree to consider the practice of knapping with a scientific aim, i.e., to serve the progress of archaeological knowledge, in the long term (learning) or by carrying out experimental tests (then documented and confronted with archaeological material and referenced in our publications).

We also agree to respect as much as possible the deposits of knappable raw material from which we have obtained our supplies for this practice:

  • limited and reasonable sampling,
  • taking documented samples for regional and national lithographic inventories, reporting to colleagues working on identifying lithic raw materials,
  • avoid any discarding of sizeable waste on sites, and more generally in the wilderness, while being aware of the risk of confusion with archaeological artefacts (the sizeable waste caused by our trials and tests must be deposited in sorting centres with construction waste and mixed for safety with glass debris).

For the same reason regarding the risk of confusion, in 10 or 100 years from now, with archaeological artefacts, it is advisable not to distribute replicas of archaeological pieces or sizable waste: neither during demonstrations in front of school or family audiences, nor for personal gifts...

Experience shows that the practice of knapping as an "amateur", without any scientific or educational objective, can have harmful effects, as is already seriously the case in several regions of France and in the USA: looting and pollution of raw material outcrops, sale and exchange of "copies" which give credibility to the idea that archaeological artefacts have commercial value, fraudulent production and sale of forgeries which are already found in amateur archaeological collections, etc. 

Consequently, "proselytising" must be avoided, i.e., the incitement of non- archaeologists to try their hand at "flint knapping", as if it were an ordinary craft activity (such as making jewellery, for example), which can be practised "for pleasure" or profit.

This implies limiting demonstrations to a university setting, for fellow archaeologists and archaeology students or educational activities in a suitable context (museum, exhibitions, etc.), and accompanied by methodological and problematic explanations (why some archaeologists learn or have learned to knapp, how it can serve a better knowledge of Prehistory, etc.). Experience shows that when a demonstration is not presented as a performance or an amusement, but as an illustration of a scientific discourse and a method of archaeology, it loses much of its incentive power (while taking on its true value).

In this way, we have seen that the modern practice of hard rock knapping can be used in different degrees and procedures in archaeology:

  • better "technological reading" of the archaeological artefacts (to identify the technical state of the tools and core, for the "techno-economic" classification of the knapped artefacts, establishing the diacritical diagram, observation of the piece for drawing, etc.)
  • identifying knapping techniques on archaeological artefacts by comparison with a broad and well- classified experimental reference system (on the other hand, knapping methods can be read directly on the archaeological material, with or without refitings),
  • establishing quantitative experimental data (quantities of products and waste, working hours), through the correct reproduction of archaeological operating chains, once the techniques, methods and materials involved have been clearly identified and respected,
  • for spatial studies, for comparative interpretation of "structures" such as in-situ heaps, discarded heaps, etc.
  • a much more delicate question, the evaluation of levels of expertise and the detection of specific knowledge of certain archaeological creations, can be supported by experimental tests (problems of hominisation, apprenticeship, degrees of technical specialisation).

These, dear colleagues and dearest students, are the principles that we wanted to observe in this training course, and that I also invite you to adhere to in your practice.

Yours sincerely,


Dr. Jacques Pelegrin