Lithic Illustrations

Projectile Points

Every artifact is a host of information that can teach us more about manufacturing techniques, technological innovations, stylistic preferences, and much more for different time periods and regions of the world.  Illustration can help capture some of this information in ways that photography is not able to.  For example, flakes and flake scars on lithic tools are often obscured in photos.

Chert Points

The focus in these three illustrations was on the banded chert used to make these lithic points, rather than on the flakes and flake scars.

Ground Stone Tools

Unlike the flaked points above, ground stone tools were manufactured using grinding techniques.  Stippling is used to capture surface texture and patterns in the stone.

Scrapers

Like the projectile points above, scrapers fall into the category of chipped-stone tools.  Illustrations can help viewers easily identify the working edge of the tool where the bulk of the flakes are concentrated.

Other Lithic Tools

There is a huge variety of stone tools found in archaeological contexts, from the examples shown above to other objects including adzes, celts, axes, plummets, hammer stones, abraders, and more.  Illustrations can be used to capture details such as surface texture, flaking, anomalies in the stone, decoration, cortex, etcetera.