Experimental evaluation of Kuhn's geometric index of reduction and the flat-flake problem

Peter Hiscock*, Chris Clarkson

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    76 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This paper presents the results of an experiment designed to explore the performance of Kuhn's Geometric Index of Unifacial Reduction [S. Kuhn, A geometric index of reduction for unifacial stone tools, Journal of Archaeological Science 17 (1990) 585-593] in measuring the amount of material removed over a sequence of retouching events for a population of 30 flakes. The index provides a reliable absolute measure of reduction under experimental conditions, and does so irrespective of blank cross-section, suggesting that the "flat-flake" problem is not necessarily a serious difficulty for the index. Furthermore, Kuhn's Index provided a more sensitive and robust measurement of the extent of reduction than any of the alternative techniques proposed in recent years.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1015-1022
    Number of pages8
    JournalJournal of Archaeological Science
    Volume32
    Issue number7
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jul 2005

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