With a deft flick of the wrist, an experienced “flintknapper”
can chip off a stone blade so sharp you can shave with it. Saturday, August 27,
stone tool expert Ken Peek will lead the annual Coyote Hills Regional Park
Knap-In where students can get an introduction to the ancient technology of
flintknapping (a term that applies to any rock, not just flint). Students may
not start out making razors, but they will learn the basics of a skill with a
legacy more than two million years old.
The Park’s Knap-in has been going on since 1993. According
to park naturalist Kristina Parkison, “It originally came about to complement
the Annual Gathering of the Ohlone, which takes place at Coyote Hills every
October.” Every year the Knap-In draws about a dozen students and hundreds of
spectators as Peek leads the class. Peek, a retired Alameda County agricultural
biologist, has been knapping for about 25 years. “I was interested in rocks as
a teenager. My grandfather collected rocks, and I learned to do lapidary work,
polishing stones and such.” Peek learned his skills from various teachers over
the years including the Miwok Archaeological Preserve of Marin (MAPOM).
Today, flintknapping is mostly considered a craft, even an
art in the hands of a few experts, but for ancient peoples, such as the native
Ohlone and other California tribes, stone implements were essential survival tools.
Archaeologists working around the Bay Area have uncovered arrowheads, knives,
and scrapers used for preparing hides.
Only certain types of rock are suitable, generally those that
break off in thin chips. Such pieces can be
very sharp. In his YouTube video, flintknapper and educator Mike Cook
strikes a chip off of a 10” diameter piece of black obsidian and proceeds to
shave with it! Typically, however, stone tools needed to be tough as well as
sharp. Arrowheads had to bring down a deer; knives and scrapers had to hold up
to the task of dressing one. Early stone toolmakers therefore perfected
standardized shapes with the right thickness—not too much to make them hard to
pass through the material to be cut, not too thin to break and need constant
retouching.
For the people living around the Bay, good quality stone was
not found on the ground, but obtained by traveling to the source or trading.
“The most popular source for obsidian near here is Napa,” says Parkison.
“Obsidian would have been a valuable trading commodity for the Ohlone.” The
reason for the uneven distribution of obsidian is that it is a by-product of
volcanic activity. Certain types of volcanoes with silica rich magmas spew thick
lava that if cooled quickly forms a glassy substance that fractures like glass.
Chert, a rock in the same family as flint, is a silica rich fine-grained clay
transformed by geologic forces into a hard stone that fractures like obsidian. Though
flint was used in California, obsidian was more common. East of the
Mississippi, Native Americans were more likely to find and use flint, since it
is associated with ancient river beds, common to the lands around the
Mississippi River.
In the past, the technology of flint knapping was passed from
generation to generation, as well as from tribe to tribe as innovations arose
and designs and techniques changed. With time and the arrival of metal tools,
the need for stone working diminished, until only a few people held the
knowledge. One such person was Ishi, the last Yahi in California, who came down
out of the foothills near Mt Lassen in 1911. In addition to providing
anthropologists insight into his language and culture, Ishi demonstrated his flintknapping
skills. These techniques, however, may not have been representative of everyday
tool-making practice. As Peek points out, “Ishi was making impractical and even
non-functional blades, as though to see how far he could push the limits of his
own skill.” In the 1960’s and 1970’s, a resurgence of interest in native cultures
renewed an interest in knapping. Books, magazines and even encyclopedia
articles written over the last few decades have captured the attention of a new
generation of knappers. Today the Internet and YouTube provide easy access to
knapping knowledge.
The tools have changed little. A modern flintknapper often
uses bone and antler, but metal tools are not uncommon. “I prefer to use
traditional tools,” says Peek, “though my kit is something of a hybrid. I like
to use copper for some of the work.” Copper, like bone and antler, is hard, but
resilient, and allows the knapper to built up pressure on the stone, grab it,
and fracture it with control.
Knapping takes time and patience to master, but novices can
quickly grasp the basics. Participants in the Knap-In can experience for
themselves a little of what it what it was like to rely on nature for the tools
needed for survival.
Knap-In: Stone Tool Making – 13524
Saturday, August 27
10:00 am to 3:00 pm
Coyote Hills Visitor Center, 8000 Patterson Ranch Road,
Fremont
(510) 544-3220 https://apm.activecommunities.com/ebparks/Activity_Search/knap-in-stone-tool-making/13527
Event is free. No registration is required (Junior Guard
Aide, Junior Guard Cadet, Park'n It Leaders-In-Training, and the 10am Group
Mine Tour require an application). Anyone can come watch. You must be 16 or
older to participate. Participants need to bring long pants, closed-toe shoes,
leather gloves and protective eye wear. Materials will be provided, and there
will be tools.
Parking fees apply where charged. Disabled accessible.
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