Lithics Lithics Acheulean (also spelt Acheulian, pronounced ACH-OOL-IAN or ACH-OO-LAY-AN) is the name of an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture mainly associated with prehistoric hominines during the Lower Palaeolithic era across Africa and south western Asia and Europe. More than one million years ago, it was Acheulean tool users who left Africa to first successfully colonise Eurasia and their distinctive oval and pear-shaped handaxes have been found over a wide area. Although it developed in Africa, the industry is named after the type site of Saint Acheul, now a suburb of Amiens in northern France where some of the first examples were identified in the nineteenth century. ...more on Wikipedia about "Acheulean"
The tool known as the adze [pronounced adds] serves for smoothing rough-cut wood in hand woodworking. Generally, the user stands astride a board or log and swings the adze downwards towards their feet, chipping off a piece of wood, and walking backwards as they go, leaving a relatively smooth surface behind. However, in general usage, the adze can be used for other cutting operations. ...more on Wikipedia about "Adze"
An arrow is a pointed projectile that is shot with a bow. It predates recorded history and is common to most cultures. ...more on Wikipedia about "Arrow"
The axe (or ax) is an ancient and ubiquitous tool that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood, harvest timber, as a weapon and a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has many forms and specialized uses but generally consists of an axe head with a handle, or helve. ...more on Wikipedia about "Axe"
In archaeology, a biface is a two-sided stone tool, manufactured through a process of lithic reduction, that displays flake scars on both sides. Bifacial artifacts can be made on large flakes or lithic cores, and may be grouped into numerous distinct classes. For the purposes of this article, four classes are defined: ...more on Wikipedia about "Biface"
In archaeology a blade refers to a thin, straight stone tool that has been struck as a flake from a larger prepared core. Blades are usually made from flint but other materials such as chert are used as the technology existed all over the world and developed from local materials. ...more on Wikipedia about "Blade (archaeology)"
In archaeology, a blank is a thick, shaped stone biface of suitable size and configuration for refining into a stone tool. Blanks are the beginning products of lithic reduction, and during prehistoric times were often created for trade or later refinement at another location. Blanks were often formed through the initial reduction of lumps of tool stone at simple quarries, often no more than easily accessible outcroppings of the local tool stone (although this was certainly not the case at Grimes Graves in England). Sometimes the shape of the blank hints at the shape of the final tool it will become, but this is not always the case. A blank may consist of either a large, unmodified flake or a reduced core, often with a rough subtriangular or lanceolate shape. Rough chopping tools, derived by removing a few flakes along one edge of the cobble, can also be considered to fall into this group. ...more on Wikipedia about "Blank (archeology)"
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In lithic analysis, a subdivision of archaeology, a bulb of applied force (also known as a bulb of percussion or simply bulb of force) is a defining characteristic of a lithic flake. When a flake is detached from its parent core, a portion of the Hertzian cone of force caused by the detachment blow is detached with it, leaving a distinctive bulb on the flake and a corresponding flake scar on the core. Bulbs of applied force may be distinctive, moderate, or diffuse, depending upon the force of the blow used to detach the flake, and upon the type of material used as a fabricator. Generally, the harder the material used as a fabricator, the more distinctive the bulb of applied force. ...more on Wikipedia about "Bulb of applied force"
In lithic reduction, a burin is a special type of lithic flake with a chisel-like edge which may have been used for engraving or carving wood or bone. Burins exhibit a feature called a burin spall, in which a small flake is struck obliquely from the edge of the burin flake in order to form the graving edge. Burin usage is diagnostic of Upper Palaeolithic cultures in Europe, but has also been identified in North American cultural assemblages. ...more on Wikipedia about "Burin"
Callaïs is the name of a green stone used for making beads by western European cultures of the later Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. It was described by Pliny the Elder (NH XXXVII.lvi.151) as being paler than lapis lazuli. ...more on Wikipedia about "Callaïs"
Celt (pron. 'selt') is an archaeological term formally used to describe long thin prehistoric stone or bronze adzes and other axe-like tools and hoes. Its use came about from a misreading of Job 19:24 in the Sixto-Clementine edition of the Latin Vulgate Bible where the certe in Stylo ferreo, et plumbi lamina, vel certe sculpantur in silice was read as celte. A 'Celte' was wrongly assumed to be a type of ancient chisel when in fact is was a mistranslation of "indeed." During the late 11th century, the word appeared with this interpretation in scholarly medieval Latin. Eighteenth century antiquarians then adopted the word for the stone and bronze tools they were finding at prehistoric sites. ...more on Wikipedia about "Celt (tool)"
Chalcedony is one of the cryptocrystalline varieties of the mineral quartz, having a waxy luster. Chalcedony may be semitransparent or translucent and is usually white to gray, grayish-blue or some shade of brown, sometimes nearly black. Other shades have been given different names. A clear red chalcedony is known as carnelian or sard; a green variety colored by nickel oxide is called chrysoprase. Prase is a dull green and onyx is black and white banded. Plasma is a bright to emerald-green chalcedony that is sometimes found with small spots of jasper resembling blood drops; it has been referred to as blood stone or heliotrope. Chalcedony is one of the few minerals other than quartz that is found in geodes. ...more on Wikipedia about "Chalcedony"
Chert is a fine-grained silica-rich cryptocrystalline 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 red and green are most often related to traces of iron (in its oxidized and reduced forms respectively). Jasper is basically chert which owes its red color to iron(III) inclusions. ...more on Wikipedia about "Chert"
In archaeology, chipped stone refers to a method of manufacturing stone tools through lithic reduction, wherein lithic flakes are struck off a mass of tool stone with a percussor. The intention is usually either to produce a tool from the remainder of the lithic core after the extraneous material has been removed, or to produce flakes that can be further modified and refined by methods such as trimming and pressure flaking. ...more on Wikipedia about "Chipped stone"
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Archaeologists define a chopper as a pebble tool with an irregular cutting edge formed through the removal of flakes from one side of a stone. ...more on Wikipedia about "Chopper (archaeology)"
In archaeology, a chopping tool is a form of prehistoric stone tool, considered to be a refinement of the earlier chopper. ...more on Wikipedia about "Chopping tool"
In archaeology, a cleaver is a name given to a type of biface stone tool of the Lower Palaeolithic. ...more on Wikipedia about "Cleaver (tool)"
Clovis points are the oldest flint tools associated with the North American Clovis culture. They date to the Paleo-Indian period around 13,500 years ago. They are named after the town of Clovis, New Mexico, where the first examples were found in 1932. However, many have been found within the remains of ice age animals. ...more on Wikipedia about "Clovis point"
Conchoidal fracture describes the way that brittle materials break when they do not follow any natural planes of separation. Materials that break in this way include flint and other fine- grained minerals, as well as most amorphous solids such as obsidian and other types of glass. It can also occur in other types of material under favorable circumstances. It was widely used in the stone Age to make sharp tools, and minerals that fracture in this fashion were widely traded as a desirable raw material. ...more on Wikipedia about "Conchoidal fracture"
In lithic analysis in archaeology the cortex is the outer layer of rock formed on the exterior of raw materials by chemical and mechanical weathering processes. It is often recorded on the dorsal surface of flakes using a three class system: primary (100% cortex), secondary (100%>x>0%), and tertiary (0%). The amount of cortex present on artefacts in an archaeological assemblage may indicate the extent of lithic reduction that has occurred. ...more on Wikipedia about "Cortex (archaeology)"
A cryptocrystal is a rock whose texture is so finely crystalline—that is, made up of such minute crystals—that its crystalline nature is only vaguely revealed even in a thin section by transmitted polarized light. Among the sedimentary rocks, chert and flint are cryptocrystalline. Also a form of diamond, known as carbonado, is cryptocyrstalline. Lava flows, especially of the acidic type such as felsites and rhyolites, may have a cryptocrystalline ground mass as distinguished from pure obsidian (acidic) or tachylite (basic), which are natural rock glasses. ...more on Wikipedia about "Cryptocrystal"
In archeology, a denticulate tool is a stone tool that displays one or more edges that are worked into multiply notched shapes, much like the toothed edge of a saw. Indeed, these tools might have been used as saws, more likely for meat processing than for wood. It is possible, however, that some or all of these notches were used for smoothing wooden shafts or for similar purposes. ...more on Wikipedia about "Denticulate tool"
In lithic analysis (a subdivision of archaeology), an eraillure is a small secondary flake removed from a lithic flake's bulb of force, which is a lump left on the dorsal surface of a flake after it is detached from a core of tool stone during the process of lithic reduction. The mechanics of eraillure formation are related to the propagation of a Hertzian cone of force through the cryptocrystalline matrix of the stone, but the particulars are poorly understood. Eraillures form only when a hammerstone is used for lithic reduction, and then only occasionally; use of soft hammer fabricators made from bone, antler, and wood produce different flake characteristics. ...more on Wikipedia about "Eraillure"
In archaeology, fire-cracked rock is rock of any type that has been altered and split by deliberate heating. It is a feature of many archaeological sites, particularly in the south-central United States. In many cases, FCR results from stones being used to line hearths or from being heated to provide a longer-lasting heat-source (similar to historic water bottles). In other cases, FCR results from stone being used to heat water; this occurs when the stones are heated and dropped directly into containers made of skin or pottery, thus boiling the water. Central Texas in the United States is well-known archaeologically for its burnt-rock middens, piles of FCR -- often exceeding several tons of material -- which resulted from the wholesale processing of oak acorns during prehistoric times. ...more on Wikipedia about "Fire-cracked rock"
Flint (or flintstone) is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline silicate rock with a glassy appearance. Flint is usually dark-grey, blue, black, or deep brown in colour. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in chalks and limestones. ...more on Wikipedia about "Flint" Everybody should like www.shortopedia.com
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