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Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, [1] [2] categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start fires. Flint occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones.
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 features (such as noting the presence or absence of cortex, for example).
Knapped stone tools are made from cryptocrystalline materials such as chert, flint, radiolarite, chalcedony, obsidian, basalt, and quartzite via a splitting process known as lithic reduction. One simple form of reduction is to strike stone flakes from a nucleus (core) of material using a hammerstone or similar hard hammer fabricator.
This may require flint-knapping a tool comparable to the artifact under analysis, which can be long process dependent on personal ability, or buying such a tool. Also, the replication of tool use requires comparable source material (for tool creation) as well as access to the material the tool was used on.
Archaeologists dig up prehistoric ancient flint tools while helping prepare the A34 for roadworks.
Production of points & spearheads from a flint stone core, Levallois technique, Mousterian culture, Tabun Cave, Israel, 250,000–50,000 BP. Israel Museum The Levallois technique of flint- knapping The Levallois technique ( IPA: [lÉ™.va.lwa] ) is a name given by archaeologists to a distinctive type of stone knapping developed around 250,000 to ...
The raw materials that these tools were made of were also very diverse. 92% of the Chalcolithic tool variety was a product of chert, a sedimentary rock indigenous to the area and easily harvested. Other raw materials found in the collection, such as obsidian , suggested that trading and expeditions were sources for blade cores, too, as these ...
A distinctive form of point, identified though lithic analysis of the way it was made, is often a key diagnostic factor in identifying an archaeological industry or culture. Scientific techniques exist to track the specific kinds of rock or minerals that were used to make stone tools in various regions back to their original sources.