Flint Flakes Tour

Patinated Flint Flake in Exposed Soils

Another flint flake – this one caught in the light with a mild blue patination. Sometimes I find old patinated struck flints that have apparently been reused following their initial patination. The flake was originally struck from a core and must have lain in the topsoil for years to build up a patina, even on its ventral surface. Later, someone found it, picked it up, and retouched it to use as a scraper, for example – the retouched areas showing up as unpatinated. I wonder what they thought? They almost certainly knew that it had been turned and fashioned by someone before them. Did it have special meaning – a link to the ancestors, perhaps?