About this objectLater Acheulian style flake tool, found at Highbury, Hitchin, in 1885.
During the second Coronavirus lockdown lockdown of 2020 North Hertfordshire Museum Visitor Services Assistant Nicola Viinikka researched and gave her opinion on some of the handaxes and this flake tool in our collection.
Acheulean tools were made of stone with good fracture characteristics, including chalcedony, jasper, and flint; in regions lacking these, quartzite might be used. During the Acheulean period, which lasted from 1.5 million to 200,000 years ago, the presence of good tool stone may have been a factor in the distribution of early humans.
Flake tools were hand tools, usually flint, shaped by flaking off small particles, or by breaking off a large flake which was then used as the tool. They could be used as knives or chipped to make side-scrapers (for working with hides and wood), burins (a flint tool with a chisel point) or other implements.
