Flint Flake Identification

How to Spot and Identify Prehistoric Flint Flakes

This page sets out to show the visitor exactly what I see when I record prehistoric flint flakes, worked flint, flake scatters, and struck flint during the surface-collection surveys. Here, instead of sample collection bags, I have taken a digital camera onto two restocked forestry compartments in Thetford Forest, Norfolk, to capture close-up shots of flint finds in situ – well sort of anyway, in this case, scattered on the surface of exposed forest soils.

This page is not about encouraging people to remove artefacts – it is about helping others to identify prehistoric struck flint, and to explore the archaeology of their own landscapes for themselves. Students of lithics and archaeology may find it refreshing to see a flake identification guide set outdoors in the soil – that is where and how you find them – not washed, marked, and bagged. OK, let me take you into the field itself – right down to the surface close-up! By the way, no flakes were hurt in the making of this gallery.