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Replicas, Fakes, and Art: The Twentieth Century Stone Age and Its Effects on Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

John C. Whittaker  and
Michael Stafford
John C. Whittaker
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Grinnell College, P.O. Box 805, Grinnell, IA 50112–0806
Michael Stafford
Affiliation:
Cranbrook Institute of Science, 1221 N. Woodward Ave, P.O. Box 801, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303–0801
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Abstract

In addition to archaeologists who make stone tools for experimental purposes, there is a growing number of flintknappers who make lithic artifacts for fun and for profit. The scale of non-academic knapping is little known to archaeologists, and is connected to a flourishing market for antiquities, fakes, replicas, and modern lithic art. Modern stone tools are being produced in vast numbers, and are inevitably muddling the prehistoric record. Modern knappers exploit some material sources heavily, and their debitage creates new sites and contaminates old quarry areas. Modern knapping is, however, a potential source of archaeological insights, and a bridge between the professional community and the interested public. Modern knapping also is creating a “twentieth-century stone age,” and archaeologists working with lithic artifacts need to be aware of the problems and potentials.

Résumé

Résumé

Además de los arqueólogos que tallan implementos de piedra por razones científicas, aquèllos que están haciendo artefactos líticos por diversión y ganancia están aumentando. La popularidad de tallar piedra sin motivos investigativos es poco conocida por arqueólogos, y en parte tiene mucho que ver con el mercado próspero de antiguedades, fraudes, reproducciones, y el arte moderno lítico. Se están produciendo muchos implementos líticos modernos, un proceso que confunde el archivo prehistórico. Talladores modernos explotan mucho algunas fuentes materiales, y su debris crea nuevos sitios y contamina cameras viejas. El tallado moderno, sin embargo, es una fuente potencial de interés arqueológico y un puente entre la comunidad profesional y el interes público. Este también está creando una Edad de Piedra del siglo viente, y arqueólogos líticos necesitan estar concientes de sus problemas y potenciales.

Type
Forum
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 64 , Issue 2 , April 1999 , pp. 203 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1999

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