Flaked stone tools were made by hitting a piece of stone, called a core, with a ‘hammerstone’, often a pebble. This would remove a sharp fragment of stone called a flake.
Both #cores and #flakes could be used as #stonetools. New flakes were very sharp, but quickly became blunt during use and had to be sharpened again by further flaking, a process called ‘retouch’. A #tool that was retouched has a row of small flake #scars along one or more edges.
Retouch was also used to shape a tool. Not all types of #stone could be used for making tools. The best types of stone are rich in #silica, hard and brittle.
These include #quartzite, #chert, #flint, #silcrete and #quartz. #Aboriginalpeople quarried such stone from #outcrops of #bedrock, or collected it as #pebbles from #streambeds and #beaches. Many flaked stone #artefacts found on #Aboriginal places are made from stone types that do not occur naturally in the area. This means they must have been carried long distances.
