WHAT IS THE INDIRECT PERCUSSION?

A technique of stone-tool manufacture in which flakes are removed from a flint core in a way that causes less wasteful shatter of the material than direct percussion.

The hammer or hammerstone does not strike the flint but rather a wood, antler, or bone punch, usually with

a prepared edge, so that the manufacture of flakes is more controlled.

WHAT IS THE HORSEHOOF CORE?

A steep-edged, often large, domed core with flat-based striking platforms, heavily step-flanked around their margins. Both very large and smaller varieties are found commonly on Pleistocene sites in most areas of Australia and on some mid-Holocene sites; they are considered characteristic of the Australian Core Tool and Scraper tradition. They were chopping tools mainly used in woodworking. The step-flaking could have resulted from repeated striking to remove flakes.

WHAT IS THE GRAVER?

A stone tool manufactured from a flake by chipping (pressure flaking) it on two edges at one end so as to leave a sharp point. Gravers were used to cut or score soft materials such as bone, shell, wood, and antler; perhaps also for punching leather and other purposes. The term also refers to a type of metalworking tool that comprises a number of subtypes, though all are handheld, hard, and sharp and are used to cut or engrave metal. Such a graver has a metal shaft that is cut or ground diagonally downward to form a diamond-shaped point at the tip. The angle of the point affects the width and depth of the engraved lines; the point is guided by thumb and forefinger.

WHAT IS THE FLINT ?

A type of hard stone, often gray in color, found in rounded nodules and usually covered with a white incrustation; a microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline form of silica containing some water and very fine pores, added to clay as an inert filler or aggregate. A member of the chalcedony group of water-bearing silica minerals, it was found from early use to fracture conchoidally and was ideal for making stone tools with sharp edges. It is chemically a quartz, but has a different microcrystalline structure. It can therefore be flaked readily in any direction and so shaped to many useful forms. It occurs widely, and where available was the basic material for man’s tools until the advent of metal; it is commonest “stone” of the Stone Age. The only types of stone preferred to it were obsidian and the tougher rocks used for ground tools in the Neolithic. The term is often used interchangeably with chert and also as a generic term denoting stone tools in the Old World. Nodules of flint occur commonly as seams in the upper and middle chalk of northwest Europe. During the Neolithic and Copper Age of Europe, flint workers recognized that flint from beds below ground were of superior quality to surface flint, especially for the manufacture of large tools such as axes. These beds were exploited by sinking shafts and then excavating galleries outwards. Flint mines are known from many areas of Europe and good examples occur in Poland (Krzemionki), Holland, Belgium (Spiennes), and England (Grimes Graves).

WHAT IS THE FLAKE ?

A thin broad piece of stone detached from a larger mass for use as a tool; a piece of stone removed from a larger piece (core or nucleus) during knapping (percussion or pressure) and used in prehistoric times as a cutting instrument. Also, any casual cutting implement typically consisting of large pieces of debitage detached from a core, not “formed” tools. Flakes often served as blanks from which more complex artifacts – burins, scrapers, gravers, arrowheads, etc. – could be made. Waste flakes (debitage) are those discarded during the manufacture of a tool. Flakes may be retouched to make a flake tool or used unmodified. The process leaves characteristic marks on both the core and flake which makes it comparatively easy to distinguish human workmanship from natural accident.

WHAT IS THE FISHTAIL POINT ?

A fluted and stemmed, fishlike stone tool of South America, dating to c. 11,000–8000 bc. The complex has some similarities to the Clovis of North America and is representative of the Paleoindian time in South America.

WHAT IS THE EOLITH ?

Any naturally shaped or broken stone, once considered to be the oldest artifacts of early man. They consist of crudely chipped flakes and cores from pre-Pleistocene or very early Pleistocene deposits. It is now accepted that eoliths were not made by humans but were chipped by natural agencies as far back as 500,000 years bc. Most eoliths were frost-split chunks with irregular chipping round the edge. Eolithic is a term sometimes used by archaeologists for the earliest stage of human culture before the Paleolithic, characterized by very primitive stone tools, especially of flint. It means “dawn of the Stone Age.” [dawn stone]

WHAT IS THE END SCRAPER?

a stone tool formed by chipping the end of a flake of stone which can then be used to scrape animal hides and wood. Its steeply angled (acute) working edge was used for flensing or softening hides and to dress skins. It appeared in Europe during the Upper Paleolithic period. It differed from side scrapers in that it had a rounded retouched end and was often made on a blade. A side scraper had a retouched working edge along the long edge of the flake.

WHAT IS THE DIRECT PERCUSSUION ?

DIRECT PERCUSSION: A technique used in the manufacture of chipped-stone artifacts in which flakes are produced by striking a core with another stone, a hammerstone, or by striking the core against a fixed stone or anvil in order to dislodge a flake. The method is less precise in its results than indirect percussion. [free-hand percussion]

WHAT IS THE CUMBRIAN CLUB ?

CUMBRIAN CLUB: A term for a distinctive type of large polished stone ax of Middle Neolithic date made in northwest England. It has a broadbutted form, long, narrow proportions, and a distinct “waisting” of constriction towards the butt end. [Cumbrian-type stone ax]

WHAT IS THE CORE TOOL ?

CORE TOOL: A stone tool, such as a hand ax, chopper, or scraper, formed by chipping away flakes from a core. These tools, often large and relatively heavy, were characteristic of Paleolithic culture. They were made by using a pebble, antler, or bone hammer. [core-tool]

WHAT IS THE CONCHODIAL FRACTURE ?

CONCHODIAL FRACTURE: A characteristic shell-like fracture pattern that occurs in siliceous rocks, such as obsidian, chert, and flint. The fracture has smooth, shell-like convexities and concavities. [conchoidal]

WHAT IS THE CLEAVER ?

CLEAVER: A heavy, large core or flake tool of the Paleolithic period, typically having a wide, straight cutting edge at one end, like a modern axhead. Technologically it is related to the hand ax, and is often found as a component of Acheulian (especially Upper Acheulian) hand-ax industries. The sharp transverse cutting edge was almost always notched by use but never sharpened. Along with bifacial tools, it was one of the main instruments of Homo erectus. It is found mainly in Africa, where much of the flake surface is left unretouched. The axlike knife was used from the Middle Pleistocene era to cut through animal bone and meat.

WHAT IS THE CLACTONIAN ?

CLACTONIAN: An early flake-tool culture of Europe, dating from the early Mindel-Riss (Great interglacial) of the Pleistocene epoch, which occurred from 1,600,000 to 10,000 years ago. It was named after discoveries at Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, England. A kind of concave scraper, perhaps used to smooth and shape wooden spears, is typical of the Clactonian industry. Apart from the tip of a wooden spear, the artifacts consist of trimmed flint flakes and chipped pebbles, some of which can be classified as chopper tools. Hand axes were absent. The Clactonian seems, therefore, to have coexisted with the early Acheulian. Some believe that the two industries are quite distinct, while others maintain that both assemblages might have been made by the same people, and that the Clactonian could in theory be an Acheulian industry from which hand axes were absent because such tools were not needed for the jobs carried out at a particular site. Clactonian and related industries are distributed throughout the north European plain, and Clactonian tools are similar in appearance to those produced in the Soan industry of Pakistan and in several sites in eastern and southern Africa. The Tayacian industry of France and Israel is believed to be a smaller edition of the Clactonian.

WHAT IS THE CHOCOLATE FLINT ?

CHOCOLATE FLINT: A variety of high-quality flint from the Holy Cross Mountains in central Poland, used by prehistoric peoples from the Mesolithic to the Early Bronze Age. It occurs in round flat nodules and in slabs no more than 10 mm (4 inches) thick. Chocolate flint is very homogeneous and has excellent flaking qualities. It was usually mined from shallow pits about 2.4 m (8 feet) deep. Four chocolate flint mines have been investigated at Tomaszow, Wierzbica-Zele, Polany, and Polany-Kolonie.

WHAT IS THE CHIPPED STONE TOOLS ?

CHIPPED STONE TOOL: Any tool produced by flaking or chipping of pieces from a stone core to produce an implement. [chipped artifact]

WHAT IS THE CHINDADN POINT ?

CHINDADN POINT: A small teardrop-shaped bifacial point found in central Alaska and dating to c. 12,000–10,000 bp; they are diagnostic of the Nenana complex.

WHAT IS THE CHEVRON FLAKING ?

CHEVRON FLAKING: a V-shaped flaking pattern which extended beyond the distal tip along much or all of one or both faces of a blade.

WHAT IS THE CHERT ?

Chert Nodule

CHERT: A coarse type of siliceous (silica) rock, a form of quartz, used for the manufacture of stone tools where flint was not available. It is of poorer quality than flint, formed from ancient ocean sediments, and often has a semi-glassy finish. It is pinkish, white, brown, gray, or bluegray in color. Flint, chert, and other siliceous rocks like obsidian are very hard, and produce a razor-sharp edge when properly flaked into tools. This crystalline form of the mineral silica is found as nodules in limestones. Varieties of chert are jasper, chalcedony, agate, flint, and novaculite. Chert and flint provided the main source of tools and weapons for Stone Age man.