week 8 - Lab
Neolithic flint tools provide an image of the technological and cultural aspects of people living at the time. The type, size, and craftsmanship of flint tools and weapons can reveal their daily activities such as not just hunting and gathering but expanding to agricultural behaviours. As well as this, the distribution of these artefacts helps archaeologists understand networks and social interactions between Neolithic people. Flint is a stone that was used to make different kinds of tools, such as arrowheads, saws or knife heads, they would occasionally also be attached to antlers to make hammers or axes. Its malleability is due to the highly flakey composure of the stone therefore it is easily shaped, it is also extremely hard and would last a very long time; we see replaceable blades become a thing slightly later, animal leather is used to secure the flint to an antler. Flint is a naturally occurring stone within chalk or limestone-rich environments, it usually presents itself as nodules under the surface or as horizontal beams, it is found around the world but the more known areas for significant resources are Denmark, England and France. Flint can be dated back to approximately 4000 BC, and many of the extraction pits survive today. It is important to say flint has been used through a couple of periods not just the Neolithic, but also, the Palaeolithic as well as the Mesolithic periods.
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