Percussion flaking in the stone age: review of English and Russian published sources

The article covers the problem of percussion flaking in the Stone Age (hard hammer percussion, soft hammer percussion, indirect percussion). English and Russian published sources about the issue of separation of percussion flaking types correspond results of experimental simulation and laboratory research. The validity of traditionally used morphological and metric features of blanks made by different variants of percussion flaking is evaluated by means of the analysis of the English and Russian publications. Features that pertain to the proximal part of blanks contain shape, sizes and proportion of striking platform; relief and shape of bulb of percussion; presence or absence prominent fissures on bulb of percussion, point of percussion, lip, ring crack and erailleur scar. Features that pertain to the overall morphology of blanks contain their shape, sizes and proportion; presence or absence ripples on ventral surface; type of profile and dorsal termination. On basis of these features generalized characteristics of blanks made by hard hammer percussion and soft hammer percussion are generated. Also we concluded that blanks which were produced by the use of soft hummer percussion and indirect percussion don’t have differences at macro morphological level.