GLOSSARY

Adze

A small stone tool made from a flake and used as a woodworking 'chisel', usually mounted in a handle.

Axe/hatchet

A stone chopping tool, usually with a ground cutting edge.

Backed Blade

A small stone blade with the margin opposite the working edge deliberately blunted to form a penknife-like back.

Bifacially trimmed

An arftefact worked on both faces.

Blade

A parallel-sided flake, at least twice as long as it is wide.

Bondi Point

An asymmetric, small triangular blade with a thick, trimmed back.

Bulb of percussion

The rounded swelling left on the inner face of a flake or blade directly below the point of impact on the striking platform.

Bulbar scar

The scar left by the removal of a scale on the bulb of percussion of a knapped piece; commonly called the eraillure.

Chert

A fine-grained crystalline aggregate of silica, with excellent fracturing properties, producing good cutting edges on stone tools. Similar to flint, agate, chalcedony and jasper.

Chipping

The detaching of a small stone fragment from a larger piece in the process of tool manufacturing or use.

Core

A lump or nodule of stone from which other tools are made; flakes are often removed by striking it with another stone.

Core tool

A core bearing trimming or use-wear, indicating its use as an implement.

Elouera

A triangular-sectioned stone backed blade, resembling an orange segment in shape.

Flake

A piece of stone detached from a core by striking the core with another stone.

Grinding

Simple manual abrasion, as in rubbing an axe on sandstone to produce a ground cutting edge.

Grinding groove

A tool-sharpening groove produced by manual rubbing of an artefact such as an axe to and fro on rock, particularly sandstone, to grind or re-sharpen its surface.

Grindstone

Grindstones or mortars are flat-surfaced stone blocks with a shallow oval or circular depression ground in one or both faces, used for the pounding, crushing or grinding of hard material such as seeds, fruits, other plant material or ochre.

Ground-edge tool

A tool with a sharp cutting edge at one end produced by grinding rather than flaking.

Hafting

The process of mounting an artefact in a handle or onto another artefact, for example, a hafter axe, a stone point hafted onto a spear.

Hammer-dressing

See Pecking, below.

Hammerstone

A lump of stone or river cobble used in fashioning small stone stools or pounding up foodstuffs.

Knapping

Fracture by striking the stone to be worked with or against another stone, or by use of a punch, thus purposely shaping the stone being worked or obtaining desired flakes or fragments. It is convergent with the flake-scars converge on one point, otherwise it may e parallel or irregular.

Microlith

A small stone artefact, less than 3 centimetres in its maximum dimension.

Midden

A prehistoric refuse heap, usually composed of shells.

Ochre

An earthy red, yellow or brown iron oxide, used as a pigment.

Pecking

The production of small pits, nicks or indentations on the surface of a rock, usually by indirect percussion.

Percussion-flaking

See Knapping, above.

Pleistocene

The glacial epoch preceding the Holocene, extending back from 10 000 years ago to about 1.8 to 2 million years ago. The Pleistocene and Holocene epochs comprise the Quaternary period.

Prehistory

That part of the past beginning with the emergence of human beings and continuing until the introduction of written records. Prehistory begins and ends at different times in different parts of the world. For example, in Australia prehistory begins with the first human arrivals during the Upper or late Pleistocene, and continues until the time of European colonization.

Pressure flaking

Shaping a stone by pressing off small, thin flakes with a bone or wooden tool.

Point

A small stone point, trimmed on one or both surfaces, generally used as a spear tip. (See entries for Bondi Point, Pirri Point)

Pirri Point

A small stone point, trimmed on one surface, generally used as a spear tip.

Retouch

The intentional flaking or trimming of a stone artefact on detachment from a core, usually by trimming, blunting or resharpening the edges.

Scraper

A stone tool made from a flake, with one or more working edge, generally used for chiselling, cutting, gouging or planing.

Silcrete

A fine-grained rock with good conchoidal fracture.

Striking platform

The area on a stone core on which a blow is struck to detach a flake. The detached flake bears on its butt end part of the original striking platform.

Thumbnail scraper

A microlithic discoidal or semi-discoidal scraper, resembling a thumbnail in size and shape. Most are end-scrapers, with the working edge on the distal end opposite the striking platform, but some have trimming on much or all of their edge.

Tool kit

A set of artefacts.

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