Lithic Sourcing

Archeologists guide to toolstone sources.

Many distinct stone types were used prehistorically, to create sharp edged tools. Some of these descriptions where derived from the Gemrocks webside.

Toolstone Varieties

Chert is the name given to some microcrystalline.
    Colors - typically white, diverse gray hues, black, brown or yellowish, and rarely red, pink, yellow, green or blue; uncommonly banded.  Color sometimes leads to problems naming a material chert rather than jasper. "If the specimen exhibits attractive colors call it jasper, otherwise call it chert (R.V. Dietrich)."  In addition, distinguishing some cherts and jaspers from some chalcedony also requires subjective decisions.
    H. 7
    S.G. 2.55-2.65
    Light transmission - subtranslucent to opaque
    Luster - dull to porcelaneous, pearly or even subvitreous
    Breakage - splintery to conchoidal fracture
    Miscellaneous - most chert, especially that widely called flint, is triboluminescent.

Chert

Dense microcrystalline quartz which correlates with chert because jasper is opaque or subtranslucent with a dull to pearly luster like chert. It is normally does not exhibit the translucency and subvitreous luster of chalcedony. 

    Colors - typically red or brown; less commonly green or just about any color, white, gray or black;  even less commonly zoned -- e.g., ill-defined stripes that are yellow, bluish, purplish, gray or nearly black -- with some specimens cloudy, variegated, roughly banded and/or spotted.  "If the specimen exhibits attractive colors call it jasper, otherwise call it chert (R.V. Dietrich)."

    H. ~ 7
    S.G. 2.5-2.9
    Light transmission - typically opaque
    Luster - dull to pearly
    Breakage - subconchoidal fracture.

Jasper

Flint is a type of fine-grained quartz that is hard, yet may be readily chipped into various shapes via percussion or pressure. It is for this reason that the mineral was widely utilized by primitive man to construct weapons and tools.

 

Flint occurs in a variety of colors depending upon the impurities it contains, but is most often brown, dark gray, or black. A fairly common type of flint called chert, however, is usually much paler than other varieties. Flint may also exhibit a white coating if it is mined from chalk or other lime-containing deposits, and several varieties of the mineral take a good shine when polished. Thus, flint is sometimes utilized in jewelry and ornamental items. In fact, flint is the official gemstone of the state of Ohio, where commercially valuable deposits of the material can be found.

 

The majority of flint deposits are associated with oceanic limestone. One theory is that silica necessary to form flint or chert originated from the siliceous spicules of sea sponges. Though typically large and relatively common, flint deposits are absent from many locations, a fact which required many early peoples to travel substantial distances in order to obtain the material.

Flint