Exploring the Manufacture of Bifacial Stone Tools from the Middle Rio Negro Basin, Uruguay: An Experimental Approach

Abstract

The Río Negro is the most important inner fluvial course of the Uruguay Republic. Along its basin, the archaeological record is characterized by flaked stone tools of remarkable workmanship. As part of a long-term experimental program to explore and understand diverse aspects of lithic technologies from the Americas, this paper reports an experiment devoted to reproducing carefully reduced bifacial knives to explore the techniques and stages of manufacture from obtaining the blank to the finished product. Resulting from the experiment a reduction sequence manufacturing model is proposed. It takes into account the techniques, flaking implements, stages of manufacture and other significant data useful to discuss topics related to the traditional technological knowledge involved in the manufacturing process of the studied bifaces. In light of this investigation, various issues related to the reduction trajectory reflected in the archaeological record are discussed.