Experimental insights into alternative strategies of lithic heat treatment

Mercieca, Alison; Hiscock, Peter

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2008.04.021

Cited by 62 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…At faster heating rates fracturing begins at lower temperatures. Our tests were limited to small samples but the results of Mercieca and Hiscock (2008) suggest that the same is true for larger volumes as they are common in the lithic reduction chain. These authors found that smaller volumes of silcrete can be heated to higher temperatures.…”

Section: Thermo-gravimetric Analysismentioning

confidence: 90%

Crystallographic and structural transformations of sedimentary chalcedony in flint upon heat treatment

Schmidt

Masse

Laurent

et al. 2012

Journal of Archaeological Science

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a b s t r a c tThe early occurrence of intentional heat treatment of silica rocks has recently become a key element in the discussion about the cultural modernity of prehistoric populations. Lithic vestiges are the only sources that remain of this process and the understanding of the material's properties and transformations are essential for reconstructing the conditions and parameters applied during heat treatment. Several models of the structural transformations upon heating have been proposed in the current literature. These models are often contradictory and do not account for the most recent structural and mineralogical data on chalcedony. In order to propose a new model, we elaborated an experimental procedure and applied different techniques involving infrared spectroscopy, solid state NMR, X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy. The results show that the major transformation to happen is the loss of silanole (SiOH) and the creation of new SieOeSi bonds according to the reaction: Si-OH HOeSi / Si eOeSi þ H 2 O. This reaction starts between 200 C and 300 C and causes an increase in the hardness of the rocks. The maximal annealing temperature and the ramp rate are the functions of the ability of the structure to evacuate newly created H 2 O and depend on the size of the specimen and the volume of its porosity. These results also show that the annealing duration at maximum temperature can be relatively short (<50 min) for a sufficiently large amount of transformation to be accomplished.

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Section: Thermo-gravimetric Analysismentioning

confidence: 90%

Crystallographic and structural transformations of sedimentary chalcedony in flint upon heat treatment

Schmidt

Masse

Laurent

et al. 2012

Journal of Archaeological Science

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show abstract

“…Heat treatment or damage has also been examined through stone-tool replication as model (Brown et al 2009;Schmidt et al 2013), although there are also examples of heat-treatment studies conducted through replication as test, in which researchers were more concerned with understanding the general process and parameters of the effect of heat on stone (Mercieca and Hiscock 2008;Schmidt et al 2012Schmidt et al , 2013.…”

Section: (Emphasis In Original)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Test, Model, and Method Validation: The Role of Experimental Stone Artifact Replication in Hypothesis-driven Archaeology

et al. 2016

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“…Crabtree y Butler (1964) constataron que el tratamiento térmico en los soportes comparativamente más delgados era mucho más exitoso. La observación, olvidada por muchos autores posteriores, ha sido recuperada recientemente por Mercieca y Hiscock (2008). En su trabajo experimentaron con cubos de silcreta de diferentes volúmenes para observar la respuesta térmica a distintas temperaturas.…”

Section: El Tratamiento Térmicounclassified

El tratamiento térmico en rocas silíceas, un procedimiento técnico para la talla

Calbet¹

2012

Trab. prehist.

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Experimental insights into alternative strategies of lithic heat treatment

Cited by 62 publications

References 27 publications

Crystallographic and structural transformations of sedimentary chalcedony in flint upon heat treatment

Crystallographic and structural transformations of sedimentary chalcedony in flint upon heat treatment

Test, Model, and Method Validation: The Role of Experimental Stone Artifact Replication in Hypothesis-driven Archaeology

El tratamiento térmico en rocas silíceas, un procedimiento técnico para la talla

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