Flake stone tool (剥片石器)

Flake stone tools are made from thin piece of stone (flake) removed from ore (host rock) by percussion.

Summary

Once flakes have been removed from host rock, the rock will be called core.

Flake stone tools were mainly used as useful tools and include chipped stone tools such as points, stone spears, stone arrowheads, stone knives, stone harpoons, stone spatulas, stone drills and stone saws. There is very few ground stoneware that were made from flakes, and beads are one of them. Most of partially ground stone axes from the Paleolithic period in Japan, which are considered to be the oldest tools in the world, were categorized as a flake stone tool. Antonym for core tool.

Technique

Techniques in the Paleolithic period include blade technique to remove vertically long flakes and Setouchi technique to remove horizontally long flakes, however, flakes in the Jomon period seem to be made more freely by hitting and cracking the core and there were not strict standards.

[Original Japanese]