Ancient stone tools
A
stone tool is, in the most general sense, any
tool made of
stone. Although stone-tool-dependent
cultures exist even today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric societies that no longer exist.
The study of stone tools is often called
lithic analysis by archaeologists. Stone tools may be made of
chipped stone or
ground stone. A person who makes chipped stone implements is called a
flintknapper.
Chipped stone tools are made from cryptocrystalline materials such as
chert, radiolarite,
chalcedony or
obsidian via a 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. If the goal of the reduction strategy is to produce flakes, the remnant
lithic core may be discarded once it has become too small to use. In some strategies, however, a
flintknapper reduces the core to a rough
unifacial or
bifacial preform, which is further reduced using soft hammer flaking techniques or by
pressure flaking the edges. More complex forms of reduction include the production of highly standardized blades, which can then be fashioned into a variety of tools such as
scrapers, knives,
sickles and microliths. In general terms, chipped stone tools are nearly ubiquitous in all pre-metal-using societies because they are easily manufactured, the
tool stone is usually plentiful, and they are easy to transport and sharpen.
Ground stone tools are maufactured from larger-grained materials such as
basalt and some forms of
rhyolite, which are not suitable for flaking. Because of their coarse surfaces, many ground stone tools are ideal for grinding plant foods. Some ground stone tools are incidental, caused by use with other tools:
manos, for example, are hand stones used in conjunction with metates, and develop their ground surfaces through wear. Other ground stone tools include
adzes,
celts, and
axes, which are manufactured using a labor-intensive, time-consuming method of repeated grinding against a harder stone, often using
water as a lubricant.
Another type of stone that may be considered an artifact is burnt or
fire-cracked rock, also abbreviated as
FCR. It can be distinguished from stone tools by a lack of
conchoidal fracture surfaces. 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. FCR is occasionally confused with
heat-treated tool stone, but the latter is a different type of material resulting from a different heating process.
he:כלי אבן
ja:石器
zh:石器
Category: Archaeological artefact types
Category:Tools
Category:Lithics