Errett Callahan
Encyclopedia
Errett Callahan is an American archaeologist
, flintknapper
, and pioneer in the fields of experimental archaeology
and lithic replication studies
.
on December 17, 1937. Callahan’s interest in the outdoors and Native American
lifeways began quite early on. As a boy Callahan was a member of the Boy Scouts of America and it was as a Boy Scout that he was first exposed to the skills and techniques that the Native Americans used to survive in the outdoors. His father, who was also his Scoutmaster, played a large role in this, not only imparting his technical knowledge, but also instilling a sense of self reliance and independence that would shape Errett’s outlook his entire life.
Callahan attended Hampden-Sydney College
in Hampden-Sydney, Virginia from 1956 to 1960. While at Hampden-Sydney Callahan majored in French
to better prepare himself for the missionary work in West Africa
he hoped to do after graduation. Callahan became a free-lance artist and went instead to East Africa
in 1965 where English was readily spoken. He returned to the United States a year later in 1966, where he painted landscapes
for three years and then taught art at a prep school for another two.
in Richmond, Virginia
, where he studied painting and modern art
. He received his Master of Fine Arts in 1977. Callahan soon realized that there was very little money to be made in painting and decided to devote himself to his love of primitive technologies.
Callahan attended The Catholic University of America
in Washington D.C. between 1974 and 1981 where he completed his Master’s and doctoral work. Callahan’s work mainly focused on experimentation and replication of aspects of Native American archaeology. His Doctoral dissertation, Pamunkey Housebuilding: an Experimental Study of Late Woodland Technology in the Powatan Confederacy was the culmination of years of experimentation and research into the lifeways of the Powatan people.
at Virginia Commonwealth University until 1977. It was during this period at Virginia Commonwealth that Callahan pioneered the study of Living Archaeology (Watts 1997), teaching classes that combined academic study and research with primitive technological experimentation. With the help of his students, Callahan conducted seven living archaeology experiments over this time period that contributed greatly to both the understanding of native lifeways as well as the field of experimental archaeology itself. The first, the Old Rag project, was an Early Woodland
encampment experiment conducted in the Blue Ridge Mountains
of Virginia
in 1972. At the Old Rag project Callahan and his students produced all of the stone
and bone
tools used in the construction and subsequent short-term habitation of the site and its dwelling. In 1973, Callahan and his students continued their experimental work at the Wagner Basalt Quarry project in northern Arizona
, where they constructed and lived in a reproduction Desert Archaic
encampment much in the same way they did at the Old Rag project. After the Wagner Basalt Quarry project, Callahan began an even more ambitious undertaking in 1974 with the multi-phased Pamunkey project. This project, located along the Pamunkey River
in Tidewater Virginia
, consisted of a series of extended (one month) living experiences in Eastern Middle and Late Woodland
encampments of their own construction. As with the previous projects everything used was produced on site, however, the extended nature of this project allowed for a more advanced understanding of Late Woodland technology, which Callahan presented for his Doctoral dissertation, Pamunkey Housebuilding: an Experimental Study of Late Woodland Technology in the Powatan Confederacy.
in 1956. He was completely self-taught for the first ten years, learning all he knew through trial and error and by examining the prehistoric artifacts he was trying to recreate (Callahan 1999). After his first decade of work, he studied with such Master-level flint knappers as Don Crabtree
, Gene Titmus, Francois Bordes
, J. B. Sollberger, and Jacques Pelegrin. Along with his continued experimentation and instructions from the masters, Callahan began reading everything he could get his hands on that pertained to flint knapping and primitive technologies. Over the first twenty years of his research Callahan worked his way through the lithic technologies of the European Paleolithic
, Paleo-Indian, Archaic, and Woodland
traditions of the Americas with another five years spent deciphering the technologies of the European Mesolithic
, all the while voluntarily restricting himself to replications of prehistoric forms. Not content to stop there Callahan spent the next twenty years of his life working his way through the complex stone technologies of the European Neolithic
. Only after that was Callahan ready to start his work on the Post Neolithic and Non-Traditional technologies where he was once again in uncharted territory, working by trial and error to produce forms that had never been seen before.
passed off as prehistoric artifacts have been detrimental to the field. Callahan has spoken out against such practices, encouraging flint knappers around the world to sign and date all of their production. Callahan has also championed authentic and scientific reconstructions, which he defined in his article What is Experimental Archaeology? (1999), as reconstructions which are successful, functional units undertaken with the correct period tools, materials, and procedures and which are scientifically monitored. In this statement, Callahan urges other flint knappers and experimental archaeologists against using modern replica tools such as copper billets to reproduce stone tools instead of the traditional bone and stone hammers used throughout prehistory. Callahan also says in the statement that without proper documentation of the techniques and processes there is no real experiment. With Callahan at the forefront of experimental archaeology, the field of replication studies gained acceptance throughout the academic community.
, in Lejre, Denmark. Hansen had founded the center in the 1960s as an experiment in Denmark’s past. Until Hansen contacted Callahan, the center had dealt mainly with Denmark’s Iron Age
. With Callahan’s help, the center pushed back the time periods represented to the Neolithic
and Mesolithic
. Callahan first traveled to Denmark in 1979, where he conducted a conference that dealt specifically with the archaeology of the area. At the conference he set up a small knapping area where he engaged Danish archaeologists and raised awareness in experimental lithic technology. He returned to Denmark in 1981, this time spending seven months at the Lejre Experimental Centre conducting research into the techniques used to produce the stone tool kit of the Neolithic Danes, including the Neolithic Danish dagger, a highly advanced stone knife originally made to copy the forms of the Bronze
daggers being produced in northern and central Europe at that time. Through his research Callahan was the first experimental archaeologist able to reproduce the daggers using traditional techniques. He is now in the process of compiling his work done in Denmark. The research will be published in his forthcoming book.
Along with his work in Denmark, Callahan has also been part of ongoing research into the Swedish Mesolithic and Neolithic as well. His replication study of Middle Sweden’s Mesolithic and Neolithic quartz
and quartzite
technology and usage, published in An Evaluation of the Lithic Technology in Middle Sweden During the Mesolithic and Neolithic (1987), shed new light on several long standing questions, including population migration, microblade technology
, and knapping efficiency vs. waste, faced by Swedish archaeologists who studied the lithic technologies of the area. As a result of his research in Sweden he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate and faculty position in the archaeology department at Uppsala University
in Uppsala, Sweden (Watts 1997).
in 1981 Callahan founded Piltdown Productions. The company was founded as a means to sell his many publications, supplies, and instructional materials, as well as the stone tools and knives he produced. He first used the name, which he took from the infamous Piltdown Man
hoax
of the early 1900s in which British collector Charles Dawson
attempted to pass off the jawbone of an orangutan
and fragments of a human skull as an undiscovered human ancestor found in a gravel quarry in Piltdown, England. Callahan first used the Piltdown name in 1974 in a comic strip
he drew for Experimental Archaeology Papers, or A.P.E.. In the comic strip he presented a humorous look at the life of a caveman
. Callahan wrote two more installments of the comic for the A.P.E. and then for the Newsletter of Experimental Archaeology. During this period, he was also producing documentary and instructional films dealing with various aspects of primitive technology as well as beginner flint knapping kits and tool reproductions that he was sold to universities, colleges, and hobbyists around the country. Callahan has produced several catalog editions that contain not only his stone tool and instructional materials but a good deal of his philosophy and ethical stances towards the field of flint knapping.
Two of the more unusual items to be found in Callahan’s Piltdown Productions inventory are his nontraditional obsidian
knives and his obsidian scalpel
s. The nontraditional obsidian knives, which Callahan began producing in quantities in 1984, are made with the same traditional tools as are his prehistoric replications; the nontraditional knives, however, are made into a large variety of shapes and sizes that are not based on any known prehistoric typology
(Callahan 1999). Callahan originally began his work on nontraditional forms out of a desire to break out of the restrictions of traditional stone knife reproductions. His knives have won many awards and have often been featured in Blade
magazine.
While his nontraditional knives were a way for Callahan to step outside the restrictions of the prehistoric typologies, his obsidian scalpels were a way for him to provide a service to mankind. The technology to make scalpel blades out of smoky obsidian, a volcanic glass that allows for the sharpest blade production, was first developed by the late Don Crabtree in the late 1970s. The blades, which have edges only a few molecules thick, are 100 to 500 times sharper than the traditional surgical steel scalpels (The University Record 1997). These ultra-sharp edges produce less scarring and tissue damage and speed the healing process. Though they are not popular in the medical field, Callahan’s obsidian scalpels have been used with great success in hundreds of operations, many performed by doctors and scientists at the University of Michigan Health System
who have done extensive research using scalpels produced by Callahan.
in November 1989 (Wescott 1999). It was at this gathering that The Society of Primitive Technology was founded to promote the practice and teaching of aboriginal
skills, foster communication between teachers and practitioners, and to bring about a set of standards for the authenticity, quality and ethics of the research that was being carried out. The society, of which Callahan was president from its inception until he retired his post in 1996 (Watts 1997), publishes the biannual journal Bulletin of Primitive Technology which includes articles on a variety of experimental archaeological topics including but not limited to stone and bone tools, aboriginal structures, nutrition, clothing, and fire production
.
into one publication. He continues to mentor and instruct students in flint knapping and other primitive technologies at his Lynchburg, Virginia home, as well as occasionally writing articles for the Bulletin of Primitive Technology.
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
, flintknapper
Flintknapper
Knapping is the shaping of flint, chert, obsidian or other conchoidal fracturing stone through the process of lithic reduction to manufacture stone tools, strikers for flintlock firearms, or to produce flat-faced stones for building or facing walls, and flushwork decoration.- Method :Flintknapping...
, and pioneer in the fields of experimental archaeology
Experimental archaeology
Experimental archaeology employs a number of different methods, techniques, analyses, and approaches in order to generate and test hypotheses, based upon archaeological source material, like ancient structures or artifacts. It should not be confused with primitive technology which is not concerned...
and lithic replication studies
Lithic analysis
In archaeology, lithic analysis is the analysis of stone tools and other chipped stone artifacts using basic scientific techniques. At its most basic level, lithic analyses involve an analysis of the artifact’s morphology, the measurement of various physical attributes, and examining other visible...
.
Early life
Errett Callahan was born in Lynchburg, VirginiaLynchburg, Virginia
Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 75,568 as of 2010. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains along the banks of the James River, Lynchburg is known as the "City of Seven Hills" or "The Hill City." Lynchburg was the only major city in...
on December 17, 1937. Callahan’s interest in the outdoors and Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
lifeways began quite early on. As a boy Callahan was a member of the Boy Scouts of America and it was as a Boy Scout that he was first exposed to the skills and techniques that the Native Americans used to survive in the outdoors. His father, who was also his Scoutmaster, played a large role in this, not only imparting his technical knowledge, but also instilling a sense of self reliance and independence that would shape Errett’s outlook his entire life.
Callahan attended Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden–Sydney College is a liberal arts college for men located in Hampden Sydney, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1775, Hampden–Sydney is the oldest private charter college in the Southern U.S., the last college founded before the American Revolution, and one of only three four-year,...
in Hampden-Sydney, Virginia from 1956 to 1960. While at Hampden-Sydney Callahan majored in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
to better prepare himself for the missionary work in West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
he hoped to do after graduation. Callahan became a free-lance artist and went instead to East Africa
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
in 1965 where English was readily spoken. He returned to the United States a year later in 1966, where he painted landscapes
Landscape art
Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...
for three years and then taught art at a prep school for another two.
Graduate Studies
In 1969 Callahan enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth UniversityVirginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Commonwealth University is a public university located in Richmond, Virginia. It comprises two campuses in the Downtown Richmond area, the product of a merger between the Richmond Professional Institute and the Medical College of Virginia in 1968...
in Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, where he studied painting and modern art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
. He received his Master of Fine Arts in 1977. Callahan soon realized that there was very little money to be made in painting and decided to devote himself to his love of primitive technologies.
Callahan attended The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America is a private university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the U.S. Catholic bishops...
in Washington D.C. between 1974 and 1981 where he completed his Master’s and doctoral work. Callahan’s work mainly focused on experimentation and replication of aspects of Native American archaeology. His Doctoral dissertation, Pamunkey Housebuilding: an Experimental Study of Late Woodland Technology in the Powatan Confederacy was the culmination of years of experimentation and research into the lifeways of the Powatan people.
Academic career
While at Catholic University, Callahan served as an instructor of anthropologyAnthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
at Virginia Commonwealth University until 1977. It was during this period at Virginia Commonwealth that Callahan pioneered the study of Living Archaeology (Watts 1997), teaching classes that combined academic study and research with primitive technological experimentation. With the help of his students, Callahan conducted seven living archaeology experiments over this time period that contributed greatly to both the understanding of native lifeways as well as the field of experimental archaeology itself. The first, the Old Rag project, was an Early Woodland
Woodland period
The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures was from roughly 1000 BCE to 1000 CE in the eastern part of North America. The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic header for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the...
encampment experiment conducted in the Blue Ridge Mountains
Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, starting at its southern-most...
of Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
in 1972. At the Old Rag project Callahan and his students produced all of the stone
Stone tool
A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric, particularly Stone Age cultures that have become extinct...
and bone
Bone tool
Bone tools have been documented from the advent of Homo sapiens and are also known from Homo neanderthalensis contexts or even earlier. Bone is a ubiquitous material in hunter-gatherer societies even when other tool materials were not scarce or unavailable...
tools used in the construction and subsequent short-term habitation of the site and its dwelling. In 1973, Callahan and his students continued their experimental work at the Wagner Basalt Quarry project in northern Arizona
Northern Arizona
Northern Arizona is an unofficial, colloquially-defined region of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is dominated by the Colorado Plateau, the southern border of which in Arizona is called the Mogollon Rim. In the West lies the Grand Canyon, which was cut by the flow of the Colorado River while the...
, where they constructed and lived in a reproduction Desert Archaic
Prehistoric Southwestern Cultural Divisions
The American Southwest has long been occupied by hunter/gatherers and agricultural people. This area, identified with the current states of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada, and areas of northern Mexico, has seen successive prehistoric cultural traditions since approximately 12,000...
encampment much in the same way they did at the Old Rag project. After the Wagner Basalt Quarry project, Callahan began an even more ambitious undertaking in 1974 with the multi-phased Pamunkey project. This project, located along the Pamunkey River
Pamunkey River
The Pamunkey River is a tributary of the York River, about long, in eastern Virginia in the United States. Via the York River it is part of the watershed of Chesapeake Bay.-Course:...
in Tidewater Virginia
Tidewater region of Virginia
The Tidewater region of Virginia is the eastern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia formally known as Hampton Roads. The term tidewater may be correctly applied to all portions of any area, including Virginia, where the water level is affected by the tides...
, consisted of a series of extended (one month) living experiences in Eastern Middle and Late Woodland
Woodland period
The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures was from roughly 1000 BCE to 1000 CE in the eastern part of North America. The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic header for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the...
encampments of their own construction. As with the previous projects everything used was produced on site, however, the extended nature of this project allowed for a more advanced understanding of Late Woodland technology, which Callahan presented for his Doctoral dissertation, Pamunkey Housebuilding: an Experimental Study of Late Woodland Technology in the Powatan Confederacy.
Flint Knapping and Experimental Archaeology
Callahan first began flint knappingFlintknapper
Knapping is the shaping of flint, chert, obsidian or other conchoidal fracturing stone through the process of lithic reduction to manufacture stone tools, strikers for flintlock firearms, or to produce flat-faced stones for building or facing walls, and flushwork decoration.- Method :Flintknapping...
in 1956. He was completely self-taught for the first ten years, learning all he knew through trial and error and by examining the prehistoric artifacts he was trying to recreate (Callahan 1999). After his first decade of work, he studied with such Master-level flint knappers as Don Crabtree
Don Crabtree
Don Crabtree was a flintknapper and pioneering experimental archaeologist.Known as the “Dean of American flintknappers” he was mostly self-educated, however he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the University of Idaho...
, Gene Titmus, Francois Bordes
François Bordes
François Bordes , also known by the pen name of Francis Carsac, was a French scientist, geologist, and archaeologist. He was a professor of prehistory and quaternary geology at the Science Faculty of Bordeaux...
, J. B. Sollberger, and Jacques Pelegrin. Along with his continued experimentation and instructions from the masters, Callahan began reading everything he could get his hands on that pertained to flint knapping and primitive technologies. Over the first twenty years of his research Callahan worked his way through the lithic technologies of the European Paleolithic
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered , and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory...
, Paleo-Indian, Archaic, and Woodland
Woodland period
The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures was from roughly 1000 BCE to 1000 CE in the eastern part of North America. The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic header for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the...
traditions of the Americas with another five years spent deciphering the technologies of the European Mesolithic
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....
, all the while voluntarily restricting himself to replications of prehistoric forms. Not content to stop there Callahan spent the next twenty years of his life working his way through the complex stone technologies of the European Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
. Only after that was Callahan ready to start his work on the Post Neolithic and Non-Traditional technologies where he was once again in uncharted territory, working by trial and error to produce forms that had never been seen before.
Ethics in Experimental Archaeology
Along with his work in the technological aspects of the field of experimental archaeology, Callahan has worked tirelessly to promote ethical research and documentation among fellow experimental archaeologists (Callahan 1999). Modern forgeriesForgery
Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...
passed off as prehistoric artifacts have been detrimental to the field. Callahan has spoken out against such practices, encouraging flint knappers around the world to sign and date all of their production. Callahan has also championed authentic and scientific reconstructions, which he defined in his article What is Experimental Archaeology? (1999), as reconstructions which are successful, functional units undertaken with the correct period tools, materials, and procedures and which are scientifically monitored. In this statement, Callahan urges other flint knappers and experimental archaeologists against using modern replica tools such as copper billets to reproduce stone tools instead of the traditional bone and stone hammers used throughout prehistory. Callahan also says in the statement that without proper documentation of the techniques and processes there is no real experiment. With Callahan at the forefront of experimental archaeology, the field of replication studies gained acceptance throughout the academic community.
Northern Europe
In 1972 Errett received a call from Hans-Ole Hansen, founder of the former Lejre Experimental Centre, nowadays Land of legends (Sagnlandet Lejre)Land of legends (Sagnlandet Lejre)
The Land of Legends, Centre for Historical-Archaeological Research and Communication is a 106 acre archaeological open air museum situated in the Lejre Municipality, few kilometres west of Roskilde . It was founded in 1964 by ethnologist Hans-Ole Hansen...
, in Lejre, Denmark. Hansen had founded the center in the 1960s as an experiment in Denmark’s past. Until Hansen contacted Callahan, the center had dealt mainly with Denmark’s Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
. With Callahan’s help, the center pushed back the time periods represented to the Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
and Mesolithic
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....
. Callahan first traveled to Denmark in 1979, where he conducted a conference that dealt specifically with the archaeology of the area. At the conference he set up a small knapping area where he engaged Danish archaeologists and raised awareness in experimental lithic technology. He returned to Denmark in 1981, this time spending seven months at the Lejre Experimental Centre conducting research into the techniques used to produce the stone tool kit of the Neolithic Danes, including the Neolithic Danish dagger, a highly advanced stone knife originally made to copy the forms of the Bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
daggers being produced in northern and central Europe at that time. Through his research Callahan was the first experimental archaeologist able to reproduce the daggers using traditional techniques. He is now in the process of compiling his work done in Denmark. The research will be published in his forthcoming book.
Along with his work in Denmark, Callahan has also been part of ongoing research into the Swedish Mesolithic and Neolithic as well. His replication study of Middle Sweden’s Mesolithic and Neolithic quartz
Quartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
and quartzite
Quartzite
Quartzite is a hard metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. Pure quartzite is usually white to gray, though quartzites often occur in various shades of pink...
technology and usage, published in An Evaluation of the Lithic Technology in Middle Sweden During the Mesolithic and Neolithic (1987), shed new light on several long standing questions, including population migration, microblade technology
Microblade technology
Microblade technology is a period of technological development marked by the creation and use of small stone blades, which are produced by chipping silica-rich stones like chert, quartz, or obsidian. Blades are a specialized type of lithic flake that are at least twice as long as they are wide...
, and knapping efficiency vs. waste, faced by Swedish archaeologists who studied the lithic technologies of the area. As a result of his research in Sweden he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate and faculty position in the archaeology department at Uppsala University
Uppsala University
Uppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. It consistently ranks among the best universities in Northern Europe in international rankings and is generally considered one of the most prestigious institutions of...
in Uppsala, Sweden (Watts 1997).
Piltdown Productions
Upon his return from Northern EuropeNorthern Europe
Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. Northern Europe typically refers to the seven countries in the northern part of the European subcontinent which includes Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Finland and Sweden...
in 1981 Callahan founded Piltdown Productions. The company was founded as a means to sell his many publications, supplies, and instructional materials, as well as the stone tools and knives he produced. He first used the name, which he took from the infamous Piltdown Man
Piltdown Man
The Piltdown Man was a hoax in which bone fragments were presented as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown early human. These fragments consisted of parts of a skull and jawbone, said to have been collected in 1912 from a gravel pit at Piltdown, East Sussex, England...
hoax
Hoax
A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
of the early 1900s in which British collector Charles Dawson
Charles Dawson
Charles Dawson was an amateur British archaeologist who is credited and blamed with discoveries that turned out to be imaginative frauds, including that of the Piltdown Man , which he presented in 1912...
attempted to pass off the jawbone of an orangutan
Orangutan
Orangutans are the only exclusively Asian genus of extant great ape. The largest living arboreal animals, they have proportionally longer arms than the other, more terrestrial, great apes. They are among the most intelligent primates and use a variety of sophisticated tools, also making sleeping...
and fragments of a human skull as an undiscovered human ancestor found in a gravel quarry in Piltdown, England. Callahan first used the Piltdown name in 1974 in a comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
he drew for Experimental Archaeology Papers, or A.P.E.. In the comic strip he presented a humorous look at the life of a caveman
Caveman
A caveman or troglodyte is a stock character based upon widespread concepts of the way in which early prehistoric humans may have looked and behaved...
. Callahan wrote two more installments of the comic for the A.P.E. and then for the Newsletter of Experimental Archaeology. During this period, he was also producing documentary and instructional films dealing with various aspects of primitive technology as well as beginner flint knapping kits and tool reproductions that he was sold to universities, colleges, and hobbyists around the country. Callahan has produced several catalog editions that contain not only his stone tool and instructional materials but a good deal of his philosophy and ethical stances towards the field of flint knapping.
Two of the more unusual items to be found in Callahan’s Piltdown Productions inventory are his nontraditional obsidian
Obsidian
Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock.It is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimum crystal growth...
knives and his obsidian scalpel
Scalpel
A scalpel, or lancet, is a small and extremely sharp bladed instrument used for surgery, anatomical dissection, and various arts and crafts . Scalpels may be single-use disposable or re-usable. Re-usable scalpels can have attached, resharpenable blades or, more commonly, non-attached, replaceable...
s. The nontraditional obsidian knives, which Callahan began producing in quantities in 1984, are made with the same traditional tools as are his prehistoric replications; the nontraditional knives, however, are made into a large variety of shapes and sizes that are not based on any known prehistoric typology
Typology (archaeology)
In archaeology a typology is the result of the classification of things according to their characteristics. The products of the classification, i.e. the classes are also called types. Most archaeological typologies organize artifacts into types, but typologies of houses or roads belonging to a...
(Callahan 1999). Callahan originally began his work on nontraditional forms out of a desire to break out of the restrictions of traditional stone knife reproductions. His knives have won many awards and have often been featured in Blade
Blade (magazine)
Blade is a long-running consumer magazine about knife collecting.First published in 1973 under the title American Blade by Southern House Publishing Co. with Blackie Collins as the editor, the magazine's title was changed to Blade in 1982 after its purchase by Jim Parker and Bruce Voyles...
magazine.
While his nontraditional knives were a way for Callahan to step outside the restrictions of the prehistoric typologies, his obsidian scalpels were a way for him to provide a service to mankind. The technology to make scalpel blades out of smoky obsidian, a volcanic glass that allows for the sharpest blade production, was first developed by the late Don Crabtree in the late 1970s. The blades, which have edges only a few molecules thick, are 100 to 500 times sharper than the traditional surgical steel scalpels (The University Record 1997). These ultra-sharp edges produce less scarring and tissue damage and speed the healing process. Though they are not popular in the medical field, Callahan’s obsidian scalpels have been used with great success in hundreds of operations, many performed by doctors and scientists at the University of Michigan Health System
University of Michigan Health System
The University of Michigan Health System is the wholly owned academic medical center of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. UMHS includes the U-M Medical School, with its Faculty Group Practice and many research laboratories; the U-M Hospitals and Health Centers, which includes University...
who have done extensive research using scalpels produced by Callahan.
Society of Primitive Technology
Throughout the 1980s the fields of experimental archaeology and lithic replication studies endured some harsh criticisms in the United States from various members of the academic community (Callahan 1999). These criticisms stemmed mainly from unscrupulous flint knappers attempting to pass their modern reproductions off as authentic prehistoric stone tools. As a result of this many practitioners went into a kind of academic hiding, choosing not to publish the results of their ongoing research. While “in hiding” the field continued to grow with every new technique that was rediscovered and, as Callahan puts it in his article What is Experimental Archaeology? (1999), “the field was bursting at the seams for expression”. In an effort to bring together members of the community, Callahan invited ten of the leading primitive technology teachers and practitioners to the Schiele Museum of Natural History’s Center for Southeastern Native American Studies in Gastonia, North CarolinaGastonia, North Carolina
Gastonia is the largest city and county seat of Gaston County, North Carolina, United States. It is also the third largest suburb of the Charlotte Area, behind Concord and Rock Hill. The population was 71,226 as of Gastonia is the largest city and county seat of Gaston County, North Carolina,...
in November 1989 (Wescott 1999). It was at this gathering that The Society of Primitive Technology was founded to promote the practice and teaching of aboriginal
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
skills, foster communication between teachers and practitioners, and to bring about a set of standards for the authenticity, quality and ethics of the research that was being carried out. The society, of which Callahan was president from its inception until he retired his post in 1996 (Watts 1997), publishes the biannual journal Bulletin of Primitive Technology which includes articles on a variety of experimental archaeological topics including but not limited to stone and bone tools, aboriginal structures, nutrition, clothing, and fire production
Making fire
Fire was an essential tool in early human cultural development and still important today. Many different techniques for making fire exist...
.
Cliffside Workshops
In 1987, Callahan began his Cliffside Workshops as a means to impart the knowledge he has learned throughout the years about flint knapping and primitive technology to students and enthusiasts from around the world. Callahan teaches the workshops at his Lynchburg, Virginia home, hosting five to ten students at a time. The workshops, which are held in the early summer and fall, mainly cover flint knapping techniques, though Callahan will cover any number of topics associated with the primitive technologies he is well versed in if the students are interested.- Class of 1987:
- Class of 1988:
- Class of 2009:
The future
Callahan has since retired from flint knapping. He is currently compiling all of his thirty years of research into the lithic technologies of ScandinaviaScandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
into one publication. He continues to mentor and instruct students in flint knapping and other primitive technologies at his Lynchburg, Virginia home, as well as occasionally writing articles for the Bulletin of Primitive Technology.
External links
- Errett Callahan Home Page
- Society of Primitive Technology Home Page
- Lejre Land of Legends Home Page, former Lejre Experimental Centre