Knife River Flint Experiment Essay

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The results of this experiment showed that there was little to no change in the physical properties, which include the flake surface color or cortex color. There was only a slight change to the surface luster, but that could even be from the quality of the Knife River Flint and not a result of heat-treating it. The results of the structural changes were a little more promising. There was a noticeable change in the knappability of the heat-treated Knife River Flint compared to the raw/unaltered samples. Neither the hypothesis nor the null-hypothesis that were laid out in this paper was fully proven. There were aspect of both that were correct. There was only a noticeable change in the structure of the Knife River Flint, so that part of the hypothesis is true, while there was not noticeable change in the physical properties of it, which is true for the null-hypothesis. The hypothesis and null-hypothesis where not proven or disproved fully. I think this experiment could eventually prove the hypothesis right or wrong; further steps would need to be taken. Increasing the time and temperature could potentiality yield better results. If that were the case then the use of a kiln would be need as they can reach high temperatures then a household oven can. …show more content…

It was kept this way because of the materials that were available. This experiment was done in an informal setting and a not professional one. It was also kept simple because of the novice knapping ability and knowledge that I possess, since I am currently learning and developing the ability to knap. This was also my first lithic experiment that involved the heating of stone. I still have a lot to learn to further my skills with flintknapping. This experiment has a lot of potential that I would be intrigued to work on in the future to further tease out

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