Prehistoric story
Hello! I'm James,
Part-time prehistoric man, I am studying for a Masters in prehistoric art at Canterbury Christ Church University. I have years of Flint Knapping experience creating replica stone tools and experimental archeology.
Explore the Shop for replicas you can buy, made to order by me using prehistoric techniques, or get in touch if you would like an item made to order.
Do get in touch for any enquiries.
Flint knapping courses coming soon!
About flint knapping.
So, what's Flint Knapping and how does it work?
Flint Knapping is a common name for the process of lithic reduction (knocking flakes off stone) and the technique is roughly 3 million years old and has travelled through our ancestor species onto us through the genus homo. H. erectus evolved 2 million years ago and was the first archaic human species to leave Africa and disperse across Eurasia. Homo sapiens emerged in Africa at least 300,000 years ago from a species commonly designated as H. heidelbergensis. The skill has remained unchanged, the knapper uses a hammerstone (hard rock) to strike the material (in our case, flint), releasing a flake in a predictable and controllable manner. These flakes can then be refined into tools, known as Flake Tools. Alternatively, one can continue removing flakes until only the tool is left as the centre of the material stone, this is known as a Core Tool, for example, a hand-axe.