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пластинка с оббитым концом

English translation: microblade with pointed tip

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GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

Russian term or phrase:	пластинка с оббитым концом
English translation:	microblade with pointed tip
Entered by:	Alan Campbell

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06:30 Jul 4, 2006

Russian to English translations [PRO]
Science - Archaeology

Russian term or phrase: пластинка с оббитым концом

An archaeological text looking at the Paleolithic in Russia. The whole phrase is as follows:

Он [П. П. Ефименко] же обозначил под именем "пластинок с оббитым концом" ножи костенковского типа.

I've found references to Kostenki knives and a reference to с оббитым концом:

http://www.sati.archaeology.nsc.ru/encyc_f/term.html?act=lis...

But I'm still not sure how it would be translated into English. "Bipointed bladelets" perhaps?

Thanks

Alan Campbell KudoZ activity Questions: 177 (6 open) (1 without valid answers) (9 closed without grading) Answers: 29
Local time: 16:14

biface with knapped end / tip

Explanation:
These are knives so I don't want to call them plates. As I understand it from the French-Russian glossary (your link), пластинка corresponds to the French term "biface", which is also "biface" in English.

The other difficulty was understanding whether this "chipping" is accidental or deliberate. I've now seen enough archaeological links and illustrations to convince me that this is deliberate chipping of the stone. So while I wouldn't say that "chipped" is wrong, it's worth noting that "knapped" is widely used:

So far, however, nothing resembling an intermediate form between inset microblades and a knapped biface has been found in North America. ...
csfa.tamu.edu/mt.php?a=52

http://www.mapsgroup.org/points1.JPG

http://www.belchalwell.org.uk/images/flints06.jpg

Knapping involves repeatedly striking a stone, usually flint, in order to remove flakes. Either the flakes themselves are knapped further or the stone from which they are taken is knapped to leave behind a useful pattern of flake scars. The stone is thus 'retouched' in order to achieve a finished form, and it may subsequently be subjected to reuse or weathering that changes its shape or surface. Flaking stone is not a way to pass the time. Stone tools were made for use as knives, cleavers, scrapers, arrowheads, and hammers. Thus a lithic drawing must show how a stone was knapped and with what purpose in view.
www.interdisciplines.org/artcognition/papers/7

It can and has been done, but I have yet to hear of a single modern person who can dryscrape a hide with knapped tools in any kind of efficient timely ...
www.braintan.com/intro/wetdry7.htm

The term knapped is synonymous with "chipped" or "struck", but is preferred by some analysts because it signifies intentionality and process. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithic_analysis

The flint nodules, having a glass-like fracture quality, could be 'knapped' (chipped) to give a fine, razor sharp cutting edge. ...
www.theheritagetrail.co.uk/early ages/grimes graves.htm

It may be worth asking "biface a point(s) abbatu(s)" as a French-English question - there may be some good archaeological knowledge there.

If this is delicate knapping round the edge ("fine-knapped"), I've seen some signs that this may sometimes be called "nibbling". I don't have any detailed knowledge about this, but here are two examples:

One of the white flint tools we have found is this flint sickle blade. ... can be distinguished from plough 'chipping' by the nibbling away of the edge all ...
www.belchalwell.org.uk/artifacts-flint.asp

The most diagnostic flints were denticulated, segmented sickle blades and a pressure-flaked tanged arrowhead though long nibbled blades, a burin on aa blade ...
ancientneareast.tripod.com/165.html

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Note added at 1 day5 hrs (2006-07-05 11:33:36 GMT)
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"Biface" really has several meanings—one is simply any stone artifact where flakes have been removed from both faces or sides. For example, almost all projectile points are bifaces in this sense. A biface can also mean a type of knife-like, general-purpose cutting tool with bifacial flaking. Austin phase knappers made many small bifaces; some of these may actually be dart point preforms or other unfinished tools. We know from the flaking debris or debitage that some fairly large, thin bifaces were also made at the rancheria, but no complete specimens have been found. Undoubtedly, large bifacial knives were highly prized possessions that were not discarded until broken.
www.texasbeyondhistory.net/graham/artifacts.html

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Note added at 1 day6 hrs (2006-07-05 12:52:07 GMT)
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To clarify: I thought I had seen the word пластинка corresponding to the French "biface" in your link. Looking again, I see the word in Russian is Бифас.

I've tried to get a clearer idea of what пластинка means here, and - again via your link - I've found this illustration:

http://www.sati.archaeology.nsc.ru/encyc_f/term.html?act=sho...

I'd say it's a flat, blade-type thing. You may well be right in using the word "bladelet".

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Note added at 1 day6 hrs (2006-07-05 13:09:40 GMT)
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Good luck! Some more terminology here:

production of bladelets knapped from heated cores. ... evaluation of the number of heat-treated bladelets knapped at Rocalibert is far greater than ...
www.antiquity.ac.uk/Ant/079/0051/ant0790051.pdf

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Note added at 2 days4 hrs (2006-07-06 10:42:31 GMT)
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I thought I'd include this, though you may have found it already, because it indicates that the definition of пластинка may be very specific:
5.48. Пластинка
Ж. Де Хайнцелин отличия между категориями пластин и пластинок располагает в пределах 3 см длины и 1 см ширины (1962, 438, с. 14), по А. Леруа-Гурану наименование пластинка применяется к орудиям настолько более длинным, насколько они широкие. Линия разделения устанавливается следующая: отношение длина-ширина 4/1; 6/1; 10/1; пластинка до 4 см; 5 см; 6 см (1964, 527, с. 12)
http://www.sati.archaeology.nsc.ru/encyc_f/term.html?act=lis...

A precise equivalent in English may be hard to find, though I suppose something like "bladelet" would cover it.

Selected response from:

Dylan Edwards
Local time: 16:14

Grading comment

Thanks once again, and sorry for the delay in selecting. We had a baby then a major computer crash.

I've found many refs to the term "microblade" which seems to fit here:
http://www.reference-wordsmith.com/cgi-bin/lookup.cgi?category=&where=headword&terms=microblade

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