Chaine Operatoire

Typology classifies finished objects into named types based on their form, treating the artifact as the unit of analysis. The chaine operatoire treats the process as the unit: it reconstructs the ordered sequence of gestures and decisions that produced and used an object, including all the by-products. Two assemblages with identical tool types could result from very different operational sequences, and the chaine operatoire is designed to expose exactly that difference. Sellet frames the approach as a shift from describing what was made to understanding how and why, which is why it complements rather than replaces classification.

Ideally the full range of by-products from across the production trajectory: cores, early cortical flakes, blanks, manufacturing debris, retouch and resharpening flakes, finished tools, and exhausted or discarded pieces. Each phase Sellet identifies leaves a characteristic signature, so the more of the sequence is represented at the site, the more complete the reconstruction. Refitting and raw-material characterization strengthen it considerably. When only finished tools survive, the analyst can still infer the later phases of manufacture and maintenance but loses the early reduction stages, yielding only part of the chain.

No, and treating it as a rigid pipeline is a common error. Although the method segments production into ordered phases for analysis, actual knapping branches, loops, and improvises: a knapper may switch goals, recover from a mistake, recycle a discarded piece, or pursue several products from one core. Sellet's framework accommodates these alternative paths, and good practice represents the chaine operatoire as a structured set of choices with branches rather than a single fixed line, so that the recovered sequence reflects the real flexibility of technical behavior.