The Microscopical Examination of Flint Surfaces

Abstract

DURING the course of my work in the experimental fracture of flint by (a) human blows delivered by a hammer-stone, (b) unguided percussion, (c) unguided pressure, and (d) the application of heat, it became, in my opinion, possible, by a close examination of an extensive series of each of the differing types of flaking produced by these various methods of fracture, to differentiate between the work of man, and that of Nature (“Pre-Palæolithic Man,” W. E. Harrison, publisher, Ipswich). While engaged upon this research I was much interested to notice that not only the type of flaking of the different series served to distinguish them from each other, but also that this difference appeared to find support, though in a less obtrusive manner, in the appearance of the surface of the flints broken by the methods above enumerated.