Events Calendar

Join us for this Brown Bag talk by OSA staff archaeologist Veronica Mraz.

About the Presentation:

Intentional heat treating of toolstone has been documented to have begun at least by 70K BP; however, the advantages of such treatment have been debated for decades. There are two schools of thought with regard to its purpose. One, is that it merely reduces the force required for flake propagation. A second is that it also alters flake morphological properties. We systematically tested these hypotheses by generating flakes from chert cores exposed to three different temperatures (ambient, 300°C, and 350°C) using automated propagation procedures that bypassed any human agency. While the force propagation magnitude is altered by heat treatment, the flakes were not. We examined these flakes according to nine measures of morphology. None differed significantly or systematically within the three temperatures. While our results confirm that heat treatment does reduce the force needed for flake propagation, they also demonstrate that heat treatment has no significant effect on major morphological aspects of flake form.

About the Presenter:

Veronica is a Research Archaeologist at OSA. After graduating from the University of Iowa she pursued her Ph.D. at the University of Tulsa. Veronica’s early graduate work focused on changes in mobility patterns across the Southern Plains between the Woodland and Plains Village periods using raw material distance decay models. However, living in Oklahoma, or maybe just being an archaeologist, affected her mental wellbeing, and she switched her focus. One day, after working a long day in the southern plains sun, she decided to study the effects of heat treatment on chert and ultimately devised a suite of quantitative macroscopic methods to improve the accuracy in identifying heat-treated materials. Veronica has been seen on work sites in Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. She has published in American Antiquity, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, and Scientific Reports, and if the authorities do not find out, she plans on presenting at the SAA 85th Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas, next month.

About the Series:

Brown Bags at the Office of the State Archaeologist is a semi-regular  series where OSA staff and guests share their research over the noon hour. Topics include individuals’ areas of interest, work in the field, and developments in archaeology and architectural history throughout Iowa and the Midwest. Guest speakers whose expertise is in other areas pertaining to archaeology or ethnohistory may be invited throughout the year as well.

These presentations are free and open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to  engage in discussion and exchange following the presentation.

A limited number of metered parking spots are available in the OSA parking lot. The remainder of the parking lot is for permit holders only.