Prepared-core technique

The prepared-core technique is a means of producing <a href="/facts/Stone_tool/JQxItKEm">stone tools</a> by first preparing common <a href="/facts/Lithic_core/eeWjREN9">stone cores</a> into shapes that lend themselves to knapping off flakes that closely resemble the desired tool and require only minor touch-ups to be usable. 
In contrast to the production of core tools like <a href="/facts/Handaxes/GeUl1rAm">handaxes</a>, where cores themselves were the end product shaped and trimmed down by removal of flakes, in prepared-core technique large flakes are the product and the core is used to produce them. This shift made it faster and more resource-efficient, as multiple tools could be struck from a single piece of starting material.
Prepared core preparation techniques are grouped under the label <a href="/facts/Stone_tool/JQxItKEm">Mode 3</a> technology. The best-known prepared core reduction method is the <a href="/facts/Levallois_technique/KUG20Ccw">Levallois</a> technique
Prepared core technology was likely invented independently multiple times at different locations. The regular use of Prepared core technology is associated with large-brained hominins such as <a href="/facts/Homo_heidelbergensis/5H7CTQzS">Homo heidelbergensis</a>, <a href="/facts/Neanderthals/19rBo6ze">Neanderthals</a> and <a href="/facts/Modern_humans/AxD254MP">modern humans</a>. Its widespread use is the defining characteristic of the <a href="/facts/Middle_Stone_Age/TVwXQYXW">Middle Stone Age</a> period in <a href="/facts/Africa/XkqQUP9s">Africa</a> and the <a href="/facts/Middle_Palaeolithic/NlQRStWY">Middle Palaeolithic</a> (~300.000 - 40.000 years ago) in <a href="/facts/Europe/DTAtrKfh">Europe</a>.

Prepared-core technique open-in-new

Prepared-core technique