KLAS provides lithic analytical services focused on chipped stone tools and their material type for cultural resource management companies. We strive to answer your research questions and we use manufacturing techniques, technological attributes, and regional data to assess temporal markers that may be the only datable artifacts available from your site.

Assemblages may include those recovered during Phase I-III Section 106 undertaking to assemblages recovered during the course of archaeological research, such as the recent work conducted at Fox Farm in Mason County, Kentucky. Tool types analyzed include projectile points, bifaces, knives, scrapers, drills/perforators, utilized flakes, prismatic blades, cores, and debitage. Tools are classified as to type, and relevant qualitative attributes and quantitative measurements (e.g., length, width, and thickness measurements [in millimeters]) are recorded in an Excel database.

Projectile points, in particular, are examined for size and shape, resharpening methods, flaking characteristics, blade and haft morphology, presence of basal thinning or grinding, notch flake scars, type of fracture(s), and raw material type. Type identification and age of projectile points is based on comparisons with types previously defined in archaeological literature.

KLAS employs the chaîne opératoire approach to debitage analysis. This approach permits analysis of all the debitage from a site. We are also open to other approaches, based on client needs and the research questions being asked. Along with a copy of the Excel database, a report will be prepared, outlining the methods used, the results of the analysis, and interpretations.

KLAS is happy to meet with private citizens and community organizations interested in better understanding the specimens in their chipped stone tool collections. KLAS can help in cataloguing and organizing these collections. We can also provide information on type names (i.e., Lost Lake, Jack’s Reef etc…), as well as the age of the tools and the raw materials they were manufactured from.