flake tool

flake tool, Stone Age hand tools, usually flint, shaped by flaking off small particles, or by breaking off a large flake which was then used as the tool.

Whenever they were available, prehistoric man preferred to use flint and similar siliceous stones, both because of the ease with which they could be chipped and for the sharp cutting edges characteristic of this type of material. However, in many regions flint does not exist, and man was obliged to use whatever material was easily available, such as sandstones, quartzites, quartz, obsidian and various volcanic rocks.

The basic principle in the manufacture of stone tools is the removal of a flake or series of flakes from a stone matrix. It is characteristic of all stone that a blow struck near an edge of a block will detach a chip or flake. Flakes may be removed from blocks by various natural causes such as wave action, pressure in the earth, and soil creep; but those produced intentionally by man exhibit definite characteristics. Their most important attribute is the bulb of percussion which appears on the lower surface of the flake just below the point where the blow was struck. Bulbs of percussion vary in size and shape, depending on the force and direction of the blow, the nature of the stone, and the nature of the object with which the blow was struck. The block from which a flake has been detached, the core or nucleus, bears the imprint of the bulb in the form of a bulbular cavity and also lateral ridges left by the removal of the flake. These ridges often form a definite pattern, showing that a piece has unquestionably been the work of man. Flaking produced by natural causes is usually haphazard, and fractures by frost or heat are characterized by a series of concentric rings as opposed to the ripple marks left by a man-made fracture.

Britannica Quiz

More Archaeology: Digging and Scraping Quiz

Stone tools were chipped by two principal methods: percussion and pressure. Chipping by percussion may be done either by striking a block of flint with a hammer of stone, wood, or bone held in the hand or by striking the block itself on the edge of a fixed stone; the latter method is called the anvil method. The use of a wooden billet or bar permits the removal of longer, thinner, and flatter flakes; and, because wood is resilient, it does not shatter the edge of the flint, and it leaves smaller and flatter bulbs than those obtained by stone on stone. Pressure flaking, as the name implies, consists of applying pressure by means of a pointed stick or bone near the edge of a flake or blade, to detach small flakes from both sides. This method was used mostly to put the finishing touches on tools or to produce a desired shape.