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Microlith
 
 
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A microlith is a small stone
Rock (geology)

In geology, rock is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock....
 tool, typically knapped of flint
Flint

Flint is a hard, sedimentary rock cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as Nodule s and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones....
 or chert
Chert

Chert is a fine-grained silica-rich microcrystalline, cryptocrystalline or microfibrous sedimentary rock that may contain small fossils. It varies greatly in color , 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 ar...
, usually about three centimetres long or less; They are typically one centimetre long and half a centimetre wide when finished. Microliths were either produced from small blades (microblades) or made by snapping normal big blades in a controlled manner, which leaves a very typical piece of waste (microburin
Microburin

A microburin is the residual product of the creation of a microlith during flint tool manufacture in many different cultures, for instance the European Mesolithic....
). The latter type of microliths are called geometric microliths.






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Encyclopedia


A microlith is a small stone
Rock (geology)

In geology, rock is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock....
 tool, typically knapped of flint
Flint

Flint is a hard, sedimentary rock cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as Nodule s and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones....
 or chert
Chert

Chert is a fine-grained silica-rich microcrystalline, cryptocrystalline or microfibrous sedimentary rock that may contain small fossils. It varies greatly in color , 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 ar...
, usually about three centimetres long or less; They are typically one centimetre long and half a centimetre wide when finished. Microliths were either produced from small blades (microblades) or made by snapping normal big blades in a controlled manner, which leaves a very typical piece of waste (microburin
Microburin

A microburin is the residual product of the creation of a microlith during flint tool manufacture in many different cultures, for instance the European Mesolithic....
). The latter type of microliths are called geometric microliths. They can be formed as various kinds of triangles, lunate shaped, trapezes, etc. The shape of the microlith can be used for dating. Microliths were produced during the middle stone age
Stone Age

The Stone Age is a broad prehistory time period during which humans widely used Rock for toolmaking.Stone tools were made from a variety of different kinds of stone....
 (Mesolithic
Mesolithic

The Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age was a period in the development of human technology in between the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age and the Neolithic or New Stone Age....
) (from the end of the Ice Age (about 9200 BCE) until the introduction of agriculture (8000 BCE)). Some types of microliths, such as trapezes, were used in the Neolithic
Neolithic

The Neolithic period was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 Before the Christian Era in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age....
 as well (the Linear Pottery culture
Linear Pottery culture

The Linear Pottery culture is a major archaeological horizon of the European Neolithic, flourishing ca. 5500?4500 BC. The heaviest concentrations are on the middle Danube, the upper and middle Elbe, and the upper and middle Rhine....
 and Funnelbeaker culture
Funnelbeaker culture

The Funnelbeaker culture, short TRB from Trichterbecherkultur is the principal north central European megalithic archaeological culture of late Neolithic Europe....
).

They were probably used as barbs on arrows, spear
Spear

A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a sharpened head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be of another material fastened to the shaft, such as obsidian, iron or bronze....
s and other composite tools.

Microliths are found throughout Europe and Asia.

Literature


  • Crabtree, Don E., "An Introduction to Flint working". Occasional Papers of the Idaho Museum of Natural History, Number 28. Second Edition, Pocatello, (Idaho, 1982)
  • Whittaker, J.C., "Flint knapping: making and understanding stone tools", University of Texas Press, (Austin, 1994)
  • Joachim Hahn|Joachim, Hahn, "Erkennen und Bestimmen von Stein- und Knochenartefakten. Einführung in die Artefaktmorphologie". Archaeologica Venatoria 10, (Tübingen, 1991) (in de)


External links

  • Rise of Chinese civilization, Carleton University
  • Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association
  • Prehistoric Exeter, Exeter City Council