RECOGNISING FLINT IMPLEMENTS --- Some hints for Beginners
by V. J. Chambers.
Flints flaked by man are of two kinds. Core implements
and flake implements. The first are made from a nodule of
flint from which pieces are chipped to give it a certain form,
the second from the pieces themselves.
Core implements present little difficulty in identific-
ation. They are usually large hand-axes, which are easily
recognised. They are also much rarer than flake ones, and
the collector will not easily come across them. A variant
is hammer stones; these consist of pebbles which have been
used to strike off flakes, and can be identified by
battering at the smaller end. More rarely they are pebbles
from which a piece has been struck off, leaving a flat
surface; the battering on this is round the edge. Any pebble
which shows signs of persistent battering at one point should
be retained for subsequent careful examination.
¥hen a flint flake is struck off, certain things happen
automatically. A portion of the surface of the parent flint
is of course retained, and this is called the striking
platform. Immediately below where the blow was struck is a
smooth swelling, the bulb of percussion, and on the surface
of this is often a tiny chip, the bulbar scar. On the same
surface can be found small superficial cracks, striations or
fissures, which point toward the bulb of percussion, and the
further end of the flake often has shell-like (conchoidal)
ripples. The other side generally shows raised ridges,
flaking ridges, where previous flakes have been struck off.
Most of these indications are trimmed off in giving the
flint its finish, the secondary chipping, but the bulb of
percussion is generally retained, and is a valuable indic-
ation of human workmanship. Secondary chipping consists of
small flakes removed from the working edge of the flake to
sharpen it, and only on this edge, as distinct from natural
chipping which may be anywhere on the face of the flint. It
is also an indication of human workmanship if the blows are
all given in the same direction where secondary flakes have
been detached, although this is not easy to make out in small
implements.
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