Antler Flaker

Also called Pressure Flaker, Antler Billet, Antler Baton, Tine Flaker, Flaking Tool, Soft Hammer

Antler FlakerAll periods (Bell 1980): Early Archaic at Ashworth Rockshelter (15Bu236), Bullitt County, Kentucky (Jefferies 2008, citing DiBlasi 1981); Green River Archaic, about 4000–1000 B.C. (Henderson and Burdin 2006); Fort Ancient at the Slone site, Kentucky (Henderson 2008); historic Inuit and Hupa (Holmes 1919).Early Archaic to Protohistoric

Key facts

Age: All periods (Bell 1980): Early Archaic at Ashworth Rockshelter (15Bu236), Bullitt County, Kentucky (Jefferies 2008, citing DiBlasi 1981); Green River Archaic, about 4000–1000 B.C. (Henderson and Burdin 2006); Fort Ancient at the Slone site, Kentucky (Henderson 2008); historic Inuit and Hupa (Holmes 1919).
Cultural period: Early Archaic to Protohistoric
Culture: Green River Archaic; Fort Ancient; Inuit; Hupa
Material: Deer and elk antler; also bone, especially deer ulna, and ivory in the Arctic (Bell 1980; Hodge 1907; Holmes 1919).

Description

An antler flaker is a flintknapping tool of antler, in two main forms. The pressure flaker is a short tine, or a cut piece of antler or bone, whose tip is pressed against the edge of a stone tool to push off small flakes; northern peoples often set it in a handle (Hodge 1907; Bell 1980). The billet, also called a baton or soft hammer, is a heavy section of deer or elk antler, often the dense base, swung to strike off thinning flakes (Bell 1980; Holmes 1919).

Deer antler tines could serve as flakers with no shaping, and deer ulnae were used too, their U-shaped socket giving a finger hold (Bell 1980). Inuit flakers had a roughened bone handle and were used with a sealskin pad (Holmes 1919). A bone or antler punch struck with a hammer was also used (Hodge 1907).

Billets remove thinner, flatter flakes than a stone hammer and were used to thin preforms; pressure flaking finished arrow points, sharpened edges and cut notches and serrations (Bell 1980). Use leaves the tip of a pressure flaker blunted and marred by flint, and the end of a billet battered (Bell 1980). The key trait is an antler tine or section whose working end is blunted and battered from pressing or striking stone.

Size

More information needed.

Distribution

Throughout North America wherever chipped stone tools were made (Hodge 1907); found on sites of every period in Oklahoma (Bell 1980), and in quantity at quarry workshops such as Mill Creek, Illinois (Holmes 1919).

Additional information

Check the working end: flakers show wear and abrasion at the tip, and billets show battering. Antler was also used for handles, so a cut antler section without battering may be a handle rather than a billet (Bell 1980). Flakers made from cut bone or antler look like awls, but an awl has a sharp, polished point, not a crushed one (Bell 1980). Antler points have a socket bored into the base (Illinois State Museum). Hammerstones do the same work as billets but are stone. One entry covers both pressure flakers and billets because the sources describe them together as antler knapping tools.

Similar types

Types that are easy to confuse with the Antler Flaker artifact.

Sources

Bell, Robert E. 1980. Oklahoma Indian Artifacts. Contributions from the Stovall Museum No. 4. University of Oklahoma, Norman. Flint Knapping Tools, pp. 59-61.samnoblemuseum.ou.edu (opens in a new tab)
Holmes, William H. 1919. Handbook of Aboriginal American Antiquities, Part 1: Introductory, the Lithic Industries. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 60. Smithsonian Institution, Washington.archive.org (opens in a new tab)
Hodge, Frederick W. (editor). 1907. Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Part 1. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 30. Smithsonian Institution, Washington. (Entry Flaking implements.)archive.org (opens in a new tab)
Jefferies, Richard W. 2008. The Archaic Period. In The Archaeology of Kentucky: An Update, Vol. 1, edited by David Pollack, pp. 193-337. State Historic Preservation Comprehensive Plan Report No. 3. Kentucky Heritage Council, Frankfort.archaeology.ky.gov (opens in a new tab)
Henderson, A. Gwynn, and Rachel Burdin. 2006. Hunters and Gatherers of the Green River Valley. Kentucky Archaeological Survey Education Series No. 7. Kentucky Heritage Council and University of Kentucky, Lexington.kentuckyarchaeologicalsurvey.org (opens in a new tab)
Henderson, A. Gwynn. 2008. Fort Ancient Period. In The Archaeology of Kentucky: An Update, Vol. 2, edited by David Pollack, pp. 739-902. State Historic Preservation Comprehensive Plan Report No. 3. Kentucky Heritage Council, Frankfort.
Illinois State Museum. 2017. Raw Materials and Technology. Archaic Period zooarchaeology exhibit. Illinois State Museum, Springfield.zooarch.illinoisstatemuseum.org (opens in a new tab)

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