“Part-time prehistoric man”
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).
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.
I started knapping when I first learnt about this Human journey. Practising prehistoric techniques is a way to connect to these ancestors and understand what it means to be Human. I'm all self taught, and practice as an experimental archaeologist.
Most of my flint comes from the cliffs at Dover. Flint forms in Cretaceous chalk layers and is revealed by oceanic erosion. Flint is wonderful as it acts as a kind of sponge in the bedrock, sucking in surrounding minerals so every piece is unique. Different colours, hardness, qualities, you have to meet each piece as an individual. Sometimes I work other knappable stones like obsidian. I make a big effort to only use prehistoric tools in my work: Bone, antler, prehistoric glue mixes and bindings. I'm also all self taught, never met another knapper we are severely endangered! Right now I estimate there are less than 5 professionally practising flint knappers in the UK, but what I love is that people are always interested anytime I'm doing it out and about. It really is Human nature.
