Re: Is this a stone age tool?

On Sep 25, 7:12 am, "Digger" <p.du...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Doesn't look like a tool per se but it has certainly been worked.

It's possible that this may been a piece of flint that has merely been
smacked around a bit in the ground but it does look far too regular to have
been produced that way. It looks as though three or four blades may have
been struck from the face but it's curious that the core seems to have been
struck from each end. Normally I would expect to see the core being worked
in one direction. There doesn't appear to be any retouch along the sharp
edge and the dorsal face of the core has something of a hinge-break
appearance at the wider end. This would suggest that either the person who
produced this wasn't intending to manfacture a tool from this particular
piece, OR, he/she wasn't very good at it and "understruck" it (i.e. didn't
hit it hard enough to produce a sharp edge).

However, be warned. I am aware of one experiment where "experts" positively
identified tools that had actually been produced by throwing a load of
pebbles into a cement mixer!

Did any of the experimental 'artifacts' show several parallel blade-
like flake scars, as is the case with this bit of flint? ISTM that
with relatively random strikes by animals or flowing water, e.g., it
would be highly unlikely that the result would include something as
apparently regular, and with several parallel scars, as is seen in
this item.

BTW, huggle, did you see other stones or bits of flint near the item?
IOW, did it appear that there was some quantity of random rocks in
very close association with the item?

Also, can you tell if the land had been a stream bed at any time in
the past?

<hugglebugglebur...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:1190660623.357788.93820@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I dug this up on my allotment in West London. Could it be a stone age
tool? Any ideas? I was digging almost three feet down. It just doesn't
look like your average bit of flint.

http://picasaweb.google.com/hugglebuggleburger/StoneTool240920071931


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