Thread: flint
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Old 17-11-2009, 11:31 AM
Jim Ford Jim Ford is offline
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Re: flint

I'm no expert but:

I think the white coating is very much older than humanity and therefore you should be looking at the darker, fresher surfaces.

The 'giveaway' evidence for humans working a flint is a 'conchoidal' fracture:

Conchoidal fracture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Just the one surface showing a conchoidal fracture could be the result of a natural accident. If there is more than one, evidence for a worked flint starts to build up.

Some flints are found that look like they've been worked to a useful shape, but the fracture planes show no evidence of a conchoidal fracture. The fractures are the result of frost damage, and I understand are referred to as 'starch', apparently because of their similarity to starch grains.

Jim

Last edited by Jim Ford; 17-11-2009 at 11:36 AM.
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