The Drop Tower and Plate Glass – a simple and effective Setup for controlled Lithic Experiments

Li Li (1), Jonathan S. Reeves (2), Sam C. Lin (3,4), Claudio Tennie (1), Shannon P. McPherron (5) 1 Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen (Germany) 2 Lise Meitner Group Technological Primates, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig (Germany) 3 Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong (Australia) 4 Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Wollongong, Wollongong (Australia) 5 Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig (Germany) Controlled experiments play a crucial role in studying flake formation to explain the variability observed in lithic assemblages. They have the advantage of controlling the effect of various knapping parameters individually. Drop tower is a classic setup used among earlier controlled studies that si