For the catalytic reactor, see Microlith (catalytic reactor). For other uses, see Microlith (disambiguation).
Microlith
Kebaran culture microliths from a flint prepared core, 22,000–18,000 BP.
Microlith productions, Kebaran culture, 22,000–18,000 BP
A microlith is a small stone tool usually made of flint or chert and typically a centimetre or so in length and half a centimetre wide. They were made by humans from around 35,000 to 3,000 years ago, across Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. The microliths were used in spear points and arrowheads.
Microliths are produced from either a small blade (microblade) or a larger blade-like piece of flint by abrupt or truncated retouching, which leaves a very typical piece of waste, called a microburin. 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 Upper Paleolithic and the beginning of the Epipaleolithic era; geometric microliths are characteristic of the Mesolithic and the Neolithic. Geometric microliths may be triangular, trapezoid or lunate. 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 spears and (in later periods) arrows, 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.[1]
^Groman-Yaroslavski, Iris; Chen, Hong; Liu, Cheng; Shimelmitz, Ron; Yeshurun, Reuven; Liu, Jiying; Yang, Xia; Nadel, Dani (2020-06-03). Petraglia, Michael D. (ed.). "Versatile use of microliths as a technological advantage in the miniaturization of Late Pleistocene toolkits: The case study of Neve David, Israel". PLOS ONE. 15 (6): e0233340. Bibcode:2020PLoSO..1533340G. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0233340. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 7269238. PMID 32492038.
Microlith A microlith is a small stone tool usually made of flint or chert and typically a centimetre or so in length and half a centimetre wide. They...
cultures. Small stone tools called microliths and retouched bladelets can be found for the first time. The microliths of this culture period differ greatly...
Lunate is a crescent or moon-shaped microlith. In the specialized terminology of lithic reduction, a lunate flake is a small, crescent-shaped flake removed...
Microblade technology is a period of technological microlith development marked by the creation and use of small stone blades, which are produced by chipping...
amateur stone tool collector who had been peddling nattō, discovered a microlith in Iwajuku, Gunma in 1946, which was recognized in 1949 as a Paleolithic...
changing environment and find new food sources. The development of Mode 5 (microlith) tools began in response to these changes. They were derived from the...
remains discovered alongside the skeletal fragments include geometric microliths dating to 28,500 BC, which together with some sites in Africa is the earliest...
allowed access to a wider variety and amount of food sources. For example, microliths or small stone tools or points were invented around 70,000–65,000 BP and...
cleavers are typical assemblages recovered of this culture. Flake tools, microliths and other chopping tools have also been found. Most of these tools were...
Meshvo Reservoir. This site dates to the Mauryan period, and a much older microlith site known as Dhek-Vadlo locally was found near Shamlaji. Shamlaji was...
rather than permanent villages. They made sophisticated stone tools using microliths—small, finely-produced blades that were hafted in wooden implements. These...
Mesolithic is characterized in most areas by small composite flint tools: microliths and microburins. Fishing tackle, stone adzes, and wooden objects such...
meanings, in reference to the dark skin of the inhabitants. The presence of microliths suggests that Zanzibar has been home to humans for at least 20,000 years...
northern Sinai and the Negev has shown that the forms of the Mushabian microliths (mainly curved and arched backed bladelets) and the intensive use of the...
Handoga, dated to the fourth millennium BCE, has in turn yielded obsidian microliths and plain ceramics used by early nomadic pastoralists with domesticated...
and microlith blades evolved due to rapid changes in the environment, which resulted in changes in the fauna available for hunting. Microliths, thin...
technologies generally associated with modern humans such as bladelets and microliths. Other ambiguous transitional cultures include the Italian Uluzzian industry...
for Natufian hunter-gatherer groups, who left a scattering of crescent microlith tools behind them. 9400 BC: Earliest supposed date for the domestication...
predominance of microliths, small cores and obsidian as raw material. The backed an scalene bladelets are the dominant type of microlith; these tools show...
are from Chalcolithic to the late medieval period. Several iron slags, microliths, and potsherds have been discovered from Singhbhum district that are from...
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