Dorsal Ridge Abrading Theory
- 7 years ago
The video covers a hypothesis on why the Clovis people did Dorsal Ridge Abrasion in their flintknapping. This was first brought to our attention by professor of archaeology at the University of Exeter Bruce Bradley PhD. He mentions in his video called "Flintknapping Featuring Clovis Technology" that dorsal ridge abrading was done by the Clovis people.
Our hypothesis states, besides making the piece stronger and thus easier to run a flake which Mr. Bradley eludes to as a possible reason in his video, that it also highlights and outlines the ridges on the piece thus making it easier to know where and in what direction to next strike the piece to run a flake. This is especially useful when the ridges are so small that you may not notice them or be able to tell the direction they are running with the naked eye.
Our hypothesis states, besides making the piece stronger and thus easier to run a flake which Mr. Bradley eludes to as a possible reason in his video, that it also highlights and outlines the ridges on the piece thus making it easier to know where and in what direction to next strike the piece to run a flake. This is especially useful when the ridges are so small that you may not notice them or be able to tell the direction they are running with the naked eye.