6/10/2023 0 Comments Flint knapping![]() ![]() In East Anglia we do sometimes find imported stone, mostly from northern or western Britain and on rare occasions we might find stone such as Jadeitite that has come from as far as the Alps. Once artefacts had been shaped, either by pecking or knapping, some were further modified by grinding and polishing eventually this can achieve a mirror-like finish. ![]() Many types of rock can be fractured in this way but the best known is flint. Finer grained rock, where it is possible to control the lines of fracture, can be flaked into shape – basically by hitting it to remove large lumps.These can be recognized by the traces of wear to their surface and by evidence for their deliberate shaping. Very coarse grained rock or rock with prominent bedding plains can be pecked into shaped by repeatedly pounding, removing small fragments and dust until it attains its desired shape. ![]() In most cases we must look for signs that the stone has been intentionally modified, and this can occur in two main ways: But unless it has been visibly modified or we find them in an unusual context – piles of small rounded stones found near hillfort entrances for example, that may be a cache of slingstones – it is usually very difficult to be sure that a natural stone has been used if that use does not leave traces. Stone undoubtedly was and still is used in completely unmodified states – many people have used a stone as a hammer at some point if nothing else is available. But what can we do with them? The first thing we must do is to recognise them and distinguish them from natural background stone. So there are lots of them, and they were made over a long period of time. A single episode of knapping can generate thousands of pieces many millions of pieces of struck flint remain to be found, each capable of telling its own small part of the story of our past.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |