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Tool
Making by Sophia Zahounanis
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One of the first and most basic stone tools ever used was a large rock that our ancestors used for pounding, serving the same purpose as a hammer. However, there are other methods of tool making that are more advanced. Humans were able to figure out that certain rocks break predictably because they have very few imperfections; these rocks, which work best for tool making, are examples of Amorphous solids (which comes from the Greek word, “without shape”). They do not have a regular, repeating pattern in their structure. They are called siliceous rocks (made up of silicon dioxide, SiO2), the most common being flint, or chert. Flint is composed of small quartz crystals; it is opaque and can be either white, gray black, or brown. Another type of rock that is useful for this purpose is Obsidian. Obsidian is generally black, glossy and lustrous which forms when silica-rich magma of granitic composition flows onto the earth's surface, where it solidifies before actual minerals can develope and crystallize. In the Paleolithic Era (“Old Stone Era”), there were two main types of tool making, percussion flaking and pressure flaking. In percussion flaking, all that is required is a core tool, which can simply be a part of a thick branch, and a piece of siliceous rock. In order to remove a flake off a piece of chert, one must strike at a specific point on the rock; this is called a percussive blow. The “flake tools” that fall off can also be used to cut with. With pressure flaking, you apply force to the chert with another rock and a long, thin blade is removed. By using either of these methods, you would be able to make a spear-like head which, after being attached to a wooden handle, could be used to whittling lumber to create the structure of a building. In order to attach the spearhead to a handle, a natural adhesive can be used. By slowly burning birch over a fire, a natural, tarry adhesive is produced called wood tar, or pitch. Hand axes are versatille and can be used for many different purposes, such as chopping wood, digging holes or hammering bone or wood. |
Percussion Flaking:
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