Lithic Refitting

Lithic refitting is the physical reconstruction of stone-tool manufacture by conjoining flakes back onto their parent core and to one another, like reassembling a three-dimensional jigsaw of a single knapping episode. Because each flake removal leaves a negative scar and a matching fracture surface, an analyst who finds two fragments that fit can be certain they were once part of the same nodule and were detached in a known relative order. Refitting therefore recovers both the gestural sequence of stone working — the order, technique, and intent behind each removal — and the spatial relationships among the resulting pieces. When refitted artifacts come from different parts of a site or different stratigraphic units, the lines connecting them measure how material has moved, exposing post-depositional disturbance, intentional transport, and the integrity of the deposit. Andrefsky's standard treatment of macroscopic lithic analysis presents refitting as the most direct, if labor-intensive, window onto reduction technology and site formation.