In archaeology, a hammerstone is a hard cobble used to strike off lithic flakes from a lump of tool stone during the process of lithic reduction. The hammerstone is a rather universal stone tool which
various hammerstones
An example of a cobble used as a hammerstone
Retouch by direct percussion on a stone anvil.
Various types of hard hammer
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was wide
Hammerstone
…of how stone tools were made. Hammerstones are or were used to produce flakes and hand axes as well as more specialist tools from materials such as flint and chert. They were applied to the edges of such stones so that the impact forces caused brittle fractures, and loss of flakes for example. They were…
A sample of Miorcani flint from the Cenomanian chalky marl layer of the Moldavian Plateau (c. 7.5 cm (3.0 in) wide)
A piece of flint 9–10 cm (3.5–3.9 in) long, weighing 171 grams
Silicified remains of algae and silica pseudomorph after halite in flint. Pebble of Loire near Marcigny, France. Image width: about 5 mm
Pebble beach made up of flint nodules eroded from the nearby chalk cliffs, Cape Arkona, Rügen, northeast Germany