write lab report

Exploring Ancient Technology ANTH-420

Lab One, Part Three: Lithic Technology—Finishing Note: Wear goggles and use safety equipment (hand and leg pads) for all parts of this lab. If you injure yourself, notify Dr. Middleton immediately. If treatable, he will take care of your wounds. If not, he will swiftly and painlessly put you out of your misery. Probably by removing your heart with a stone dagger. Like the Aztecs, you know? The Lab You have now spent two weeks practicing making stone tools. Do you think that you are ready to actually make one? Why or why not? Was it harder than you thought? Why? Were the cavemen big dummies, or are you? Do your best to make something. It’s okay if you can’t. But try your best and think about the process. Most of you will have started with an idea of what you wanted to create, such as a spear point, an arrowhead, a knife, etc.. Most of you will not have arrived at the destination you envisioned. And that’s ok. But, what you want to think about is this: How did the results you obtained feed back into the creation process? How did you adapt what you were doing based on your outcomes? Was it a process of establishing diminished expectations, or was it more dynamic? Think about this before you begin your write up. Lab Report By now you should have an appreciation of the fact that lithic technology is ancient technology, not primitive technology. Producing even simple stone tools requires a high degree of skill, familiarity with materials, and complex planning and problem solving abilities. You will do a lab report for this lab. The report should be 2-3 pages, double- spaced, 12-point font. The report should follow the format:

Purpose Materials Procedure Results Discussion Conclusions

Use the questions posed in each part of the lab as a guide for the issues that you will want to address. Using your new-found experience in Parts One, Two, and Three of this lab, reflect on these points: 1) What are the raw material requirements for making a good stone tool? What

material properties do you need? How do they impact tool manufacture? What are the implications for material availability (i.e., what does a stone tool maker need to do to obtain the right material?)

2) How do the different techniques you used in all three labs, Hard Hammer, Soft Hammer, and Pressure Flaking, all come together? Would you recommend using just one of them, two, or all three? Why?

3) The Smart Aleck will tell you, to make a stone tool, start with a big piece of

stone and chip away everything that doesn’t look like a tool. And that’s true, in a sense. Based on your experience, what is the single most important thing, the single most important area of knowledge that you need to know to “chip away everything that doesn’t look like a tool?

4) What are the specific bits of knowledge that a person who depends on stone

tool technology would have to know? What sort of facts do you think they carry around with them as they go about their daily lives?

5) Think about the Stafford article. How is what you just did similar to his

study? How is it different? What would you need to do to make your work more like Stafford’s (I don’t mean the quality of his flint knapping, I mean intellectually).

6) Thinking of both the Leakey (supplemental readings) and Stafford articles,

what we’ve talked about in class, and your experience in the three parts of the lithics lab, how do you think changes in lithic technology relate to changes in human society? Remember, the earliest stone tools predate our species by about 3 million years.

Your report should be 2-3 pages. If you use outside sources (like the Stafford or Leakey articles) cite them in text and include a bibliography. Bibliography doesn’t count in the page total but citing outside sources does count as exceeding the minimum requirements of the assignment. The Lab Report is due in lab Next Week: 4/6 October, depending on which lab you attend.