Chipped stone tools were made by stone age The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period during which humans widely used stone for toolmaking. Stone tools were made from a variety of different sorts of stone. For example, flint and chert were shaped for use as cutting tools and weapons, while basalt and sandstone were used for ground stone tools, such as quern-stones. Wood, bone, shell, peoples worldwide. Paleolithic Lower Paleolithic (genus Homo) tools were relatively simple, repeated small flakes being struck or pressed from a cobble or nucleus until the required shape was achieved. This is called knapping Knapping is the shaping of flint, chert, obsidian or other conchoidal fracturing stone through the process of lithic reduction to manufacture stone tools, strikers for flintlock firearms, or to produce flat-faced stones for building or facing walls, and flushwork decoration.

Freshly made Mesolithic The Mesolithic or "Middle Stone Age" was a period in the development of human technology in between the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age and the Neolithic or New Stone Age, in which farming appeared. The term was introduced by John Lubbock in his work Pre-historic Times, published in 1865. The term was, however, not much used until V. Gordon chipped stone tools are very sharp, much sharper than the bronze Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other elements such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminium, or silicon. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal or even iron Iron is the most common element in the earth as a whole, and the fourth most common in the Earth's crust. It is produced as a result of stellar fusion in high-mass stars, and it is the heaviest stable element produced by stellar fusion because the fusion of iron is the last nuclear fusion reaction that is exothermic. Iron is the most widely used blades that eventually replaced them. However they were brittle and easily damaged and could not be easily sharpened. Mesolithic stone tools were, perhaps, the first disposable mass-produced commodity. However, during Neolithic times highly polished blades were valuable tools which were routinely resharpened by careful flaking away from the cutting edge, by repolishing, or by a combination of both.

By the Neolithic The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age. The Neolithic followed the terminal Holocene Epipalaeolithic period, beginning with the rise of farming, which produced the " in Europe Europe is one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus region (Specification of borders) and the Black Sea to the southeast. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean and the manufacture of chert Chert is a fine-grained silica-rich microcrystalline, cryptocrystalline or microfibrous sedimentary rock that may contain small fossils. It varies greatly in color (from white to black), but most often manifests as gray, brown, grayish brown and light green to rusty red; its color is an expression of trace elements present in the rock, and both and obsidian Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock. It is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly without crystal growth. Obsidian is commonly found within the margins of rhyolitic lava flows known as obsidian flows, where the chemical composition induces a high viscosity and polymerization blades had become a highly skilled industry (see Tool stone A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made partially, or entirely out of stone. Although stone-tool-dependent cultures exist even today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric societies that no longer exist).

Polished stone axes

During the Neolithic The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age. The Neolithic followed the terminal Holocene Epipalaeolithic period, beginning with the rise of farming, which produced the " period, large axes were made from flint nodules by chipping a rough shape, a so-called "rough-out". Such products were traded across a wide area. The rough-outs were then polished to give the surface a fine finish to create the axe head. Polishing not only increased the final strength of the product but also meant that the head could penetrate wood more easily.

Such axe heads were needed in large numbers for forest clearance and the establishment of settlements and farmsteads, a characteristic of the Neolithic period. There were many sources of supply, including Grimes Graves Grimes Graves is a large Neolithic flint mining complex near Brandon in England close to the border between Norfolk and Suffolk. It was worked between around circa 3000 BC and circa 1900 BC, although production may have continued well into the Bronze and Iron Ages owing to the low cost of flint compared with metals. Flint was much in demand for in Suffolk The county is low-lying with few hills, and is largely wetland habitat and arable land with the wetlands of The Broads in the North. The Suffolk Coast and Heaths are an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Cissbury in Sussex The divisions of West Sussex and East Sussex were first established in 1189, and had obtained separate administrations by the 16th century. This situation was recognised by the County of Sussex Act 1865. Under the Local Government Act 1888 the two divisions became two administrative counties (along with three county boroughs: Brighton, Hastings and Spiennes near Mons Mons is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, of which it is the capital. The Mons municipality includes the old communes of Cuesmes, Flénu, Ghlin, Hyon, Nimy, Obourg, Baudour (partly), Jemappes, Ciply, Harmignies, Harveng, Havré, Maisières, Mesvin, Nouvelles, Saint-Denis, Saint-Symphorien, Spiennes, in Belgium Belgium (pronounced /ˈbɛldʒəm/ , BEL-jəm), officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a state in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, as well as those of several other major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres (11,787 sq mi), and it to mention but a few. In Britain Great Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 59.8 million people in mid-2009, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1,000 smaller islands and islets. The island of, there were numerous small quarries in downland A downland is an area of open chalk hills. This term is especially used to describe the chalk countryside in southern England. Areas of downland are often referred to as Downs areas where flint was removed for local use, for example.

Many other rocks were used to make stone axes, including the Langdale axe industry The Langdale axe industry is the name given by archaeologists to the centre of a specialised stone tool manufacturing at Great Langdale in England's Lake District during the Neolithic period as well as numerous other sites such as Penmaenmawr Penmaenmawr is a town in the parish of Dwygyfylchi, in the county borough of Conwy, Wales, population about 2,500. It is a seaside resort and quarrying town, though the latter is no longer a major employer, on the North Wales Coast between Conwy and Llanfairfechan and Tievebulliagh Tievebulliagh is a 402m high mountain in the Glens of Antrim, Northern Ireland. It forms part of the watershed between Glenann to the north and Glenballyeamon to the south. It is situated about 4.4 km from Cushendall in Co Antrim, Ulster Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In Langdale, there many outcrops An outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth.[citation needed] of the greenstone were exploited, and knapped where the stone was extracted. The sites exhibit piles of waste flakes, as well as rejected rough-outs. Polishing improved the mechanical strength In materials science, the strength of a material is its ability to withstand an applied stress without failure. Yield strength refers to the point on the engineering stress-strain curve beyond which the material begins deformation that cannot be reversed upon removal of the loading. Ultimate strength refers to the point on the engineering stress- of the tools, so increasing their life and effectiveness. Many other tools were developed using the same techniques. Such products were traded across the country and abroad.

Modern uses

The invention of the flintlock Flintlock is the general term for any firearm based on the flintlock mechanism. The term may also apply to the mechanism. Introduced at the beginning of the 17th century, the flintlock rapidly replaced earlier firearm-ignition technologies, such as the doglock, matchlock and wheellock mechanisms. It continued to be in common use for over two gun mechanism in the sixteenth century produced a demand for specially shaped gunflints. The gunflint industry survived until the middle of the twentieth century in some places, including in the English town of Brandon Brandon is a small town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk. It is in the Forest Heath local government district. Brandon is located in the Breckland area on the border of Suffolk with the adjoining county of Norfolk. Surrounded by Forestry Commission and agricultural land it is still considered a rural town, although there is an RAF^[1]

For specialist purposes glass knives are still made and used today, particularly for cutting thin sections In optical mineralogy and petrography, a thin section is a laboratory preparation of a rock, mineral or soil sample for use with a polarizing petrographic microscope. A thin sliver of rock is cut from the sample with a diamond saw or laser, mounted on a glass slide and then ground smooth using progressively finer abrasive grit until the sample is for electron microscopy The electron microscope uses electrostatic and electromagnetic "lenses" to control the electron beam and focus it to form an image. These lens are analogous to, but different from the glass lenses of an optical microscope that form a magnified image by focusing light on or through the specimen in a technique known as microtomy. Freshly cut blades are always used since the sharpness of the edge is very great. These knives are made from high-quality manufactured glass Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle, and often optically transparent. Glass is commonly used for windows, bottles, and eyewear; examples of glassy materials include soda-lime glass, borosilicate glass, acrylic glass, sugar glass, Muscovy-glass, and aluminium oxynitride. The term glass developed in the late Roman, however, not from natural raw materials such as chert or obsidian. Surgical knives made from obsidian Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock. It is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly without crystal growth. Obsidian is commonly found within the margins of rhyolitic lava flows known as obsidian flows, where the chemical composition induces a high viscosity and polymerization are still used in some delicate surgeries.

In fiction

• The Earth's Children Earth's Children is a series of speculative alternative historical fiction novels written by Jean M. Auel set circa 25,000 before present. There are five novels in the series so far and a sixth is in progress[when?]. Auel has mentioned in recent interviews that she now believes she will write a seventh novel, which will be the last in the series series by Jean M. Auel Jean Marie Auel , born Jean Marie Untinen (born February 18, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois), is an American writer. She is best known for her Earth's Children books, a series of historical fiction novels set in prehistoric Europe that explores interactions of Cro-Magnon people with Neanderthals. Her books have sold 34 million copies worldwide in many focuses heavily on the making of stone tools.

References

1. ^ Clarke, R (1935), The Flint-knapping Industry at Brandon, Antiquity, vol. IX

See also

• Eolith
• Handaxe A hand axe is a bifacial Stone tool of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic. This kind of axe is typical of the lower Paleolithic and the middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) and is the longest-used tool of human history. It is not to be confused with a modern wood handled axe
• Ficron
• Ovate handaxe
• Bout-coupé
• Burin Burin from the French burin meaning "cold chisel" has two specialised meanings for types of tools in English, one meaning a steel cutting tool which is the essential tool of engraving, and the other, in archaeology, meaning a special type of lithic flake with a chisel-like edge which was probably also used for engraving, or for carving
• Microlith A microlith is a small stone tool that is sufficiently worked so as to be distinguishable from workshop waste or accidents. They are usually made of flint or chert and are typically one centimetre long and half a centimetre wide. Microliths were produced from either small blades or larger blades by abrupt or truncated retouching, which leaves a
• Microburin A microburin is a characteristic waste product from manufacture of lithic tools, sometimes confused with an authentic burin, which is characteristic of the Mesolithic, but which has been recorded from the end of the Upper Paleolithic until the Calcolithic. This type of lithic artifact was first named by Henri Breuil who defined it as «a type of
• Scraper In archaeology, scrapers are unifacial tools that were used either for hideworking or woodworking purposes. Whereas this term is often used for any unifacially flaked stone tool that defies classification, most lithic analysts maintain that the only true scrapers are defined on the base of use-wear, and usually are those which were worked on the

Categories: Lithics Categories: Archaeology of material culture | Stone Age | Archaeological artefact types Archaeologists give names to the artifacts that they find. These names may not always reflect the true purpose of the item and are sometimes deliberately vague | Primitive technology | Stone Age

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