Editing Hammerstone (section)

=== Precision and indirect percussion ===
[[File:Tixier avec une Chasse-lame.jpg|thumb|Demonstration of how to place the intermediate piece.]]Both percussion with an intermediate piece and pressure carving share common technical points, among them the difficulty of distinguishing the scars left by one and the other. The remaining nuclei of both are, on the other hand, completely different. In the case of pressure, the tool is no longer a hammer in the strict sense of the word, since the compressors, that is, the tools used, do not hit; they only press so hard that they exceed the elastic limit of the rocks, breaking them according to the conchoidal fracture model. For this reason, it is difficult not to associate the compressors with the hammers.

==== Hammer with intermediate piece (pointer) ====
Carving with an intermediate piece is a specialized technique for obtaining lithic blades. It is one of the steps of a laminar extraction method, which means that by itself it has no value, since it requires a previous preparation of the core and continuous maintenance gestures of the same (done this way, the work is very similar to that of a [[stonemason]] with his mallet and his chisel). If we consider the core to be ready, there are two known ways to use the pointer or intermediate piece:
* The first is to hold the core between the knees, with the percussion platform up and the extraction face out. The end of the pointer is placed where we want to extract the blade and hit it decisively with a shaft that acts like a mallet. This method yields good products: long, medium-sized and highly standardized blades or sheets, but with a strong general curvature.
* The second is to hold the core underfoot. This results in much straighter blades, but smaller ones. If one tries to increase their size carving accidents are more likely to occur.
It is thought that indirect percussion with a pointer appears in the Upper Palaeolithic, and it coexists with direct percussion. In any case, the scars of these techniques are impossible to distinguish, except in exceptional cases. In fact, it is difficult to identify the bone pointers in the excavations, since they hardly have characteristic marks, that is, different from a percussion with any other purpose. Proposed examples are that of the [[Fageolet cave]] ([[Dordogne]]), dated in the ''[[Gravettian]]'', those of [[Villevallier]] and [[Armeau]] ([[Yonne]]), both Neolithic, and those of [[Spiennes]] ([[Belgium]]), from the same period.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Piel-Desruisseaux|first=Jean-Luc|title=Outils préhistoriques. Forma. Fabrication. Utilisation|publisher=Masson|year=1986|isbn=2-225-80847-3|location=Paris|pages=14–15}}</ref>

==== Compressor ====
[[File:Retoque por presión.jpg|thumb|left|Experimental retouching by pressure with a cervid antler compressor.]]Unlike the technique of indirect percussion with a pointer, pressure carving with compressors is not only used for the extraction of flaked products (specifically stone blades), it is also used for retouching tools. In fact, pressure carving to obtain blades includes a vast repertoire of methods, not all of which are known to researchers. All of these methods require a certain level of specialization, as demonstrated by carving experiences. Because of its complexity and the fact that we do not discuss a striker, this section is brief.

[[File:Biface feuille de laurier.JPG|thumb|Solutrean laurel leaf blade]]There is a method of pressure retouching, called subparallel covering retouching (due to its morphological aspect), which was rediscovered by the American archaeologist and experimenter Donald E. Crabtree in the 70s,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Crabtree|first=Donald E.|date=1966|title=A stone worker's approach to analysing and replicating the Lindenmeier Folsom|journal=Tebiwa|volume=9}}</ref> and expanded by this same archaeologist with the collaboration of Butler, Tixier and others. They have also developed many others, but this type of retouching is quite well known (In fact, many enthusiasts manufacture and sell highly accurate replicas in memory of the Native American heritage of certain regions<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://stoneflake.net/main.htm|title=Stone Flake Woodlands|date=2006|website=Stone Flake Woodlands|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060131021709/http://stoneflake.net/main.htm|archive-date=January 31, 2006}}</ref>) and the interest from researchers, experimental prehistorians, has gone to the extraction of blades by pressure. To carry out this technique, the piece must be held firmly on the palm of the left hand (holding the lithic artifact firmly is one of the most difficult techniques to learn). The compressor is held with the right or it is levered while holding the left hand between the thumb and the rest of the fingers, pressing as hard as possible. The compressor can be made of horn or [[ivory]] (sometimes with a flint embedded in the tip<ref name="Semenov"/>), but in [[Chalcolithic]], which must be considered the golden age of this type of retouching due to the masterpieces obtained, the compressor could have a [[copper]] tip. If the technique is done well, the touches are usually very regular, parallel, and very flat over all.

On the other hand, if there is a Silver Age of pressure retouching, it must be the [[Solutrean]], in the Upper Paleolithic (the most emblematic case being that of the Laurel blades); Although the technique was known before, it was hardly used. It disappeared for a time and reappeared in the Neolithic, lasting for a long time in foliaceous pieces of various sizes (from the tip of a stone [[arrow]], to the [[Aztec]] [[ceremonial dagger]]s, through the tips of the [[Clovis culture|Clovis Culture]] or knives [[Predynastic Egypt|Egyptian Predynastics]]).

There are many techniques for pressure knapping, too many to describe in detail aside from a basic list:
*''Extraction of blades in hand with the help of a simple cervid horn compressor:'' If the flint is of good quality, blades of up to four cm in length and 7&nbsp;mm in width are obtained, but the difficulty of holding the core firmly increases as the extraction progresses and the core becomes smaller, so carving accidents often occur.
*''Extraction of blades with a compressor and with a core fixation system in hand (a piece with a slot where the core is placed and which can be made of wood, bone or horn)'': The results are not significantly better, but they are more homogeneous, avoiding most carving accidents.
*''Extraction of blades with a system of fixation of the nucleus at hand and the help of a cane-compressor supported in the armpit'': a method already experimented by Crabtree, allows to increase the force with which the nucleus is pressed, thus obtaining slightly larger blades and minimizing carving accidents.
*''Extraction of blades holding the nucleus in the ground by means of wooden fixing mechanisms and using walking sticks (crutches) resting on the chest or abdomen.'' The worker's posture can be standing (using weight to press) or sitting (less strength, but more control). The blades obtained approach fifteen centimeters long. In addition, they are more standardized, more homogeneous, and the nucleus can be exploited much more until it is completely exhausted.
*''Extraction of blades holding the nucleus in the ground by means of wooden fixing mechanisms and using walking sticks (crutches) supported on the abdomen.'' The position of the standing craftsperson allows the weight to be used to press; but the real trick is a recess in the cane, so that it can bend, making it more flexible. That is, adding to the weight of the body the potential energy of the warped cane.
*''Extraction of leaves holding the nucleus in the ground by means of wooden fixing mechanisms and using stick-compressors with a lever resting on the abdomen.'' The craftsperson's posture is sitting and grasping the cane at the opposite end, pulling it up. Thus, the lever attacks the core with a force greater than 300&nbsp;kg. With this system, still under investigation, blades of more than 25 centimeters have been obtained.
Extraction of blades by pressure has the advantage, over indirect percussion with pointer, of producing much more rectilinear pieces, as was the case with the other method.
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[[File:Retocadores de Mucientes.jpg|thumb|left|Deer horn retouchers from the ''[[Los Cercados]]'' site, in [[Mucientes]], [[Valladolid]].]]The extraction of leaves began, from the end of the Paleolithic, to be an increasingly complex and sophisticated method in which, as we see, the strikers are only one of the instruments used. As the extraction of blades was perfected, accessories were added: first the intermediate piece or pointer for indirect carving, then the abrasive pebbles to prepare percussion platforms, then the compressors with handles, later the core fixing systems (the former were used to hold them in the hand, then the feet, and finally autonomous, but increasingly complex), the latter attached to the crutches or [[walking stick]]s (at first they rested on the shoulder, then on the abdomen and finally on the chest), to which was added a bone, antler or copper tip, a lever mechanism and a recess to increase its elasticity and [[potential energy]]. All this points to an increasingly specialized industry, probably focused on trade; at least since the [[Chalcolithic]]. There may have been specialized workshops that supplied more or less wide areas from the source of origin of the raw material. A good example of the latter are the very long flint blades from [[Varna, Bulgaria|Varna]] ([[Bulgaria]]), which could reach 44 centimeters in length, were made of imported flint and only appeared in the richest tombs dated to the [[4th millennium BC]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Manolakakis|first=Laurence|date=1996|title=Production lithique et émergence de la hiérarchie sociale : l'industrie lithique de l'Enéolithique en Bulgarie (Première moitié du IVe millénaire)|journal=Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française|volume=93|issue=1|pages=119–123|doi=10.3406/bspf.1996.10105|issn=0249-7638|url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02551163/file/bspf_0249-7638_1996_num_93_1_10105.pdf}}</ref>

The opposite case is that of the [[Valladolid reservoir]] of ''Los Cercados'' (municipality of [[Mucientes]]). There, a series of Copper Age finds appeared, basically wells filled with archaeological remains. One of them produced a series of utensils typical of an artisan, specialized in the carving of indigenous flint: carving waste, roughing products, flakes, discarded tools, and above all stone hammers and what have been called bone retouchers (this type of pieces are rarely preserved, that's why they are so important). Apparently in this site they specialized in foliaceous pieces, for example arrowheads, and sickle teeth;<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wattemberg García|first=Eloísa|title=Guía de las colecciones del Museo de Valladolid|publisher=Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de Educación y cultura|year=1997|isbn=84-7846-603-7|pages=67}}</ref> that is, it was a regional production destined for domestic use.