In
lithic reduction
In archaeology, in particular of the Stone Age, lithic reduction is the process of fashioning stones or rocks from their natural state into tools or weapons by removing some parts. It has been intensely studied and many archaeological industrie ...
, the striking platform is the surface on the proximal portion of a
lithic flake
In archaeology, a lithic flake is a "portion of rock removed from an objective piece by percussion or pressure,"Andrefsky, W. (2005) ''Lithics: Macroscopic Approaches to Analysis''. 2d Ed. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press and may also be refe ...
on which the detachment blow falls;
[Kooyman, Brian Patrick. ''Understanding Stone Tools and Archaeological Sites''. University of Calgary Press, 2000, p. 12.] this may be natural or prepared. Types of striking platforms include:
* Cortex, which consists of an area of cortex used as a platform during initial reduction;
* Single-faceted, consisting of a flat platform at right angles to the dorsal surface of the flake and most often associated with
conchoidal fracture
Conchoidal fracture describes the way that brittle materials break or fracture when they do not follow any natural planes of separation. Mindat.org defines conchoidal fracture as follows: "a fracture with smooth, curved surfaces, typically sligh ...
s;
* Double-faceted, a variety of multifaceted, prepared platform, also characteristically flat and associated with conchoidal fractures;
* Multifaceted, with three or more facets to the platform;
* Lipped, a platform type resulting from soft hammer biface reduction; and
* Crushed, which occurs when the platform was crushed beyond easy recognition by the detachment blow.
Notes
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Lithics