Microlith

A microlith is a small <a href="/facts/Rock_(geology)/FXCJkmop">stone</a> tool usually made of <a href="/facts/Flint/RkMoXqjb">flint</a> or <a href="/facts/Chert/pmvbVy6U">chert</a> and typically a centimetre or so in length and half a centimetre wide. They were made by <a href="/facts/Humans/rlcTENsr">humans</a> from around 35,000 years ago, across <a href="/facts/Europe/DTAtrKfh">Europe</a>, <a href="/facts/Africa/XkqQUP9s">Africa</a>, <a href="/facts/Asia/4IToYrrQ">Asia</a> and <a href="/facts/Australia/qLHpbppq">Australia</a>. The microliths were used in spear points and <a href="/facts/Arrowhead/M3BUXh59">arrowheads</a>.
Microliths are produced from either a small blade (<a href="/facts/Microblade_technology/eV9LLnT1">microblade</a>) or a larger blade-like piece of flint by abrupt or truncated <a href="/facts/Retouch_(lithics)/jYr52zU3">retouching</a>, which leaves a very typical piece of waste, called a <a href="/facts/Microburin/sX2THPKF">microburin</a>. The microliths themselves are sufficiently worked so as to be distinguishable from workshop waste or accidents.
Two families of microliths are usually defined: laminar and geometric. An assemblage of microliths can be used to date an archeological site. Laminar microliths are slightly larger, and are associated with the end of the <a href="/facts/Upper_Paleolithic/BnpabgyJ">Upper Paleolithic</a> and the beginning of the <a href="/facts/Epipaleolithic/7EEq0h9M">Epipaleolithic</a> era; geometric microliths are characteristic of the <a href="/facts/Mesolithic/XTNS0x3r">Mesolithic</a> and the <a href="/facts/Neolithic/wRS0Bnh4">Neolithic</a>. Geometric microliths may be triangular, <a href="/facts/Trapezoid/nCBKsauz">trapezoid</a> or <a href="/facts/Lunate/NrIbxKJU">lunate</a>. Microlith production generally declined following the introduction of agriculture (8000 BCE) but continued later in cultures with a deeply rooted hunting tradition.
Regardless of type, microliths were used to form the points of hunting weapons, such as <a href="/facts/Spear/CAs47lgJ">spears</a> and (in later periods) <a href="/facts/Arrow_(weapon)/B21BfJoL">arrows</a>, and other artifacts and are found throughout Africa, Asia and Europe. They were utilised with wood, bone, resin and fiber to form a composite tool or weapon, and traces of wood to which microliths were attached have been found in Sweden, Denmark and England. An average of between six and eighteen microliths may often have been used in one spear or harpoon, but only one or two in an arrow. The shift from earlier larger tools had an advantage. Often the haft of a tool was harder to produce than the point or edge: replacing dull or broken microliths with new easily portable ones was easier than making new hafts or handles.

Microlith open-in-new

Microlith