Kind: captions
Language: en
you're watching a Nova Video
podcast it may not look like much but
for Stone Age Americans 13,000 years ago
this simple tool could mean the
difference between life and death Haled
to the end of a wooden shaft the Clovis
point was used to devastating effect
against large
game Clovis was the earliest uh known
culture in North America and this is the
Hallmark of that culture Jeff budro of
the Massachusetts archaological Society
has spent more than 20 years trying to
get inside the minds of the early Stone
Age
explorers he's become an expert on
making their tools using ancient
techniques with materials that were
widely available in the Stone Age budro
begins the process of making a Clovis
point he starts by thinning and shaping
a piece of flint with the large section
of antler called a
Billet Stones Like Flint will break in
predictable ways depending on how and
where they're struck but a skilled eye
is needed to take advantage of these
properties every fragment that's removed
is potentially useful some of the flakes
that come off it are themselves turned
into
tools this is an incredible knife edge
you can see how sharp this is by how
easily it cuts leather and there's just
no problem at
all after hours of shaping the point is
ready for the finishing
touches using a modern tool and a
technique called pressure flaking Buro
prepares the base for the next
step what I'm doing right now is
critical because not only the time that
I have invested in this piece already
but it's very easy to ruin it complet
completely with one strike of my
Billet knocking vertical grooves called
flutes into both sides of the point
allows it to be easily attached onto a
spear shaft this is a delicate
procedure
there it hinged out but we've got a
flute
after repeating the process on the other
side of the point Buro grinds the base
with a rough Stone so it won't cut
through its
binding with this completed the point is
ready for
use there we have
it this would be the finished
piece can Clovis points help solve the
ridle of who the first Americans were
and where they came
from watch America's Stony explorers
airing February 20th at 8:00 p.m. on PBS
you can visit us online at pbs.org SL
noova SL Stone
AG