Flint, tools and mines
How Stone Age people made their tools, where the best flint came from, and how metal arrived.
Four kinds of tool
The Stone Age is the long stretch of prehistory when people made and used stone tools. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Stone Age Britannica lists four kinds of Stone Age tool: pebble tools, hand-axes, flake tools and blade tools. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Stone Age
The three periods are told apart by how skilfully people made and used stone tools. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Stone Age Most of what survives from the Palaeolithic is made of flint, stone, bone and antler, because those materials last. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Stone Age
The first human fossils found in Britain are a leg bone and two teeth from Boxgrove in West Sussex, about 500,000 years old. Natural History Museum: First Britons
Early modern humans made tools of bone and ivory as well as stone, and carved, painted and sculpted. Natural History Museum: First Britons
Polished stone and new skills
The Neolithic, or New Stone Age, is marked by polished stone tools, farming, permanent villages, pottery and weaving. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Neolithic
A platform of split and hewn timbers at Star Carr is the earliest evidence of carpentry in Europe. University of York: Stone Age remains are Britain’s earliest house (10 August 2010)
Flint
The flint itself formed about 90 million years ago, when the area was a warm sea. English Heritage: History of Grime’s Graves The best layer, called “floorstone”, was prized for its quality and glossy black colour. English Heritage: History of Grime’s Graves
Flint made arrowheads, axes for felling trees, and tools for cutting, scraping and piercing. English Heritage: History of Grime’s Graves Flint from Grime’s Graves was traded over long distances. English Heritage: History of Grime’s Graves
Mining it
People began mining the dark flint at Grime’s Graves around 2600 BC. English Heritage: History of Grime’s Graves The miners dug shafts up to 13 metres deep, then worked along tunnels at the bottom. English Heritage: History of Grime’s Graves
They prised out the flint with picks made from antlers. English Heritage: History of Grime’s Graves The bumps and hollows at Grime’s Graves mark 433 mines and pits. English Heritage: History of Grime’s Graves
A carefully buried dog skeleton was found in a tunnel off Greenwell’s Pit. English Heritage: History of Grime’s Graves
And then, metal
Ötzi still used stone tools, but he owned a valuable copper axe. South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology: Ötzi the Iceman Bronze is made by combining copper with tin (or arsenic), and it replaced stone for tools and weapons. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Neolithic
In Britain the first metal objects appeared about 2400 BC; English Heritage dates the Bronze Age to about 2300–800 BC. English Heritage: History of Grime’s Graves Four sarsens carry hundreds of carvings of axe-heads, probably bronze axes from about 1750–1500 BC. English Heritage: History of Stonehenge
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