For this week’s Manuscript Monday, I’m going back to my roots. I earned my undergraduate degree at Grinnell College, a tiny but rigorous liberal arts college adrift in a sea of Iowa corn. It was a wonderful place to learn, and I met my wife there, so… double-win!
My instruction at Grinnell was primarily under the supervision of two wonderful people, Dr. Kathryn Kamp and, most closely, Dr. John Whittaker. Dr. Whittaker was and is a great professor, and a good mentor. He also valued highly learning how to make and use the things we as archaeologists excavate. We experimented with making clay pots, dabbled in balanophagy (preparing and eating acorns), threw atlatls ALL THE TIME, and often met on Friday afternoons to flintknap. That’s right, the time when most schools might see their students head towards any number of early parties or other activities, we Grinnell archaeologists would get together and break rocks into stone tools and projectile points. It was ridiculously fun, except for that day we tried window glass… so much blood.
Dr. Whittaker is an expert in flintkapping, carefully reducing select pieces of stone into spear points, scrapers, arrowheads, and myriad other tools. His book, Flintknapping: Making and Understanding Stone Tools (University of Texas Press, 1994), lays out some of the rudiments of the art and what that means for archaeologists interested in understanding excavated examples. It is accessible to non-specialists, and sprinkled with colorful anecdotes.
Flintknapping is available at SAU’s Magale Library, as well as other libraries in the region. Click here to see where you might find the book near you.
