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FlintFlint in North Yorkshire Museum CollectionsFlint CollectionsThe value of Flint CollectionsMany of the earliest objects in our museums are stonetools. These may be local or are often importedspecimens from further afield (often Scandinavia orNorth America). This series of factsheets attempts toprovide a starting point for the museum professional inidentifying, cataloguing and storing these artefacts.Flint was mainly used in the prehistoric periods and wasworked into a variety of different tools. Archaeologicalsites from these periods are very difficult to detect and aforgotten box of flints in a museum store may be ouronly evidence that one existed.Nature of CollectionsThe majority of the flints in our collections will have beencollected by archaeologists. These collections mayhave been generated by excavations but will morecommonly be surface finds, collected from freshlyploughed fields or patches of erosion on moorland.There has been a long history of flint collection withmany of the earlier accessions in our older museumsdating back over a hundred years.Flint tools include hunting equipment such asarrowheads and domestic items including knives andscrapers.The types of tools present on anarchaeological site can indicate the types of activitiesthat were carried out there.Flint chronologyThe technology used to produce tools and the toolsthemselves changed over time. This means that flintscan be used to help date archaeological sites. Theprincipal flint working periods in the region are: Mesolithic (see Fact Sheet 5-6)Early Neolithic (see Fact Sheet 7)Later Neolithic/early Bronze Age (see FactSheet 8)Major flint assemblage from White Gill –held at the Yorkshire MuseumThe activities of certain archaeologists have generatedabundant archives, for example there are majorcollections of flints in store at the Ryedale Folk Museumdonated by Raymond Hayes and Roland Close.Flints will often be collected in large numbers from asingle site or area. Moorland collections made overseveral decades by different collectors often number inthe tens of thousands. At the opposite end of the scalemuseum collections may include stray finds of singleflints, commonly axe-heads or arrowheads, donated bymembers of the public.Flint Factsheet 1 of 8Fragment of a Palaeolithic hand axe (left) from Redcarcompared to a type specimen from Hampshire (right).Palaeolithic (2.6 million years ago to c. 10000 B.C.)material is unlikely to be present in most museums in theregion, with the exception of genuine stray finds (whichshould be well documented given their rarity) or typespecimens from elsewhere (often the River Thames orEurope).This is because the area was buried under deep icesheets for most of the Palaeolithic. Genuine artefacts ofthe period are uncommon north of Derbyshire.

Flint in North Yorkshire Museum CollectionsStorageFlint is largely inert so needs no special conservationmeasures or particular environmental conditions.However despite its hardness it is easily chipped so it ispreferable to bag items individually wherever possible.Archaeologists may already have taken great pains tolabel the surface of individual items with the site name(often as three letter site code followed by the year ofthe excavation). The combination of the sheer quantityof flints in a collection and the small size of many of thepieces means that this may often be impractical.Supporting documentationLithic donations to museums will be variablydocumented. In some cases the flints will be fullyanalysed with a catalogue and illustrated report. Thevery opposite may be the case in some instances,particularly for the more historic collections when objectswere collected for their intrinsic interest rather than theirassociations.Non-standard box sizes and deteriorationof packaging is a common problem withdonations from private individuals.In many cases the flints in museum stores will remain inthe packaging in which they were donated. This mightinclude everything from match boxes to envelopes.Flints with poor provenance may be oflimited archaeological valueSome collections will be so poorly documented as tohave lost much of their meaning. Where provenancecannot be demonstrated from packaging, museumsaccessions register or information submitted with thedonation then it might be worth considering transferringthe material to an educational or handling collection.Historical uses of flintThe Hingston Collection in the Yorkshire Museum: Finds weredonated in brown envelopes carefully marked with the sitename, date of find and National Grid Reference.Diligent collectors may have marked the packaging withuseful information such as the site name and date thefind was made. It may be desirable to change thispackaging to rationalise storage space. If this is thecase it is important to transfer as much information aspossible from the original packaging as it may be theonly available information about the object.Flint Factsheet 2 of 8thIn the early 17 century the flint-lockgun was invented. This led to vastamountsofgunflintsbeingmanufactured through to the earlythyears of the 20 century. These arevery distinctive objects (see image toright at actual size), roughly square inshape with abrupt trimming aroundeach edge, and should be easily distinguished fromprehistoric material.

The Properties of FlintWhat is Flint?Flint is a form of silica formed in chalk deposits. Incertain areas of the country it occurs as large nodules ortablets and was mined from prehistory onwards. Themajority of flint found in the Yorkshire region is fromsecondary sources, usually small nodules or pebblescollected from local beaches or eroding boulder claydeposits.Flint blade and flakes with varying amounts of cortex.These pebbles are normally completely or partiallycovered in an outer crust known as cortex. This cortexis softer than the flint but is usually well reduced and thinin section. Mined flint will normally have a much thickerand chalkier cortex.Because flint has been collected from a variety of mixedsources it is often very variable in character. The colourgenerally ranges in shade from light to dark brown.Toffee coloured pieces and a distinctive red-brown flintare also noted in the region.Flint KnappingAlthough flint is a very hard material it is extremely proneto fracture. If a pebble of flint is struck with a hammer(usually another stone or piece of antler) it will split. Thenormal process is for a flat surface to be located ormanufactured on the pebble and for blows to be struckaround its edge to remove flakes. These usually haverazor sharp edges and need no further modification tomake useful cutting implements.CoresA core is a nodule or pebbleof flint from which flakeshave been removed. Corestend to be amongst thelarger pieces in Yorkshireassemblages, although theycan also be quite small insize. Unfortunately manylarge pieces of flint inmuseum collections areoften labelled as coreswhen they are not. Coreswill normally have at leastone flat platform. As well asa platform the faces of thecore should have a numberof flake scars running awayfrom it.FlakesColour variance in Yorkshire flintOver time flint may acquire a patina to its surface. Thisis usually grey or white and will be variable across theflint surface. When backlit the original colour of the flintusually becomes visible on thinner edges. The flake atthe top right of the image above has a creamy whitepatina.Flint Factsheet 3 of 8Flakes struck from cores have a number of definingfeatures. On the back of the flake will be a swellingknown as the bulb of percussion. This may have one ormore small bulbar scars. Below the bulb are a series ofripples that radiate down through the flake. Fissuresmay also be visible running down the length of the flake.The front of the flake may be covered in cortex or haveridges and scars left from previous flakes.

The Properties of FlintHard and Soft HammersDifferent types of hammers were used to remove flakesfrom cores. The basic techniques are to use a harderstone (hard hammer) or antler (soft hammer). The twotechniques produce very different types of flakes.DebitageAs well as cores and flakes the knapping processusually produced a good deal of less regular wastematerial known as debitage.These may includebroken fragments offlakes, small chips(usually less than10mm in size) andshatteredangularfragments. The latercategory is oftenverydifficulttodistinguishfromnaturally shatteredmaterial.Burnt flintMany flints were either purposely or accidentally burntfollowing their discard. The simplest explanation is thatwaste chips and redundant tools were simply swept in tothe camp fire as a convenient method of disposal.Top: Hard hammer flakeBottom: Soft hammer flakeHard hammer flakes are usually squat, stubby and thickin section. The hard hammer transmits more forcethrough the flint leaving a pronounced bulb of percussionand distinct ripples. Soft hammer flakes tend to belonger and thinner. The force of the blow dissipatesthrough the flint more gradually leaving a diffuse bulb,often with a slight lip that can be detected with a fingernail.Retouch and ToolsThe edges of a freshly knapped flake can be extremelysharp. To produce more specialist tools retouch wasemployed to modify the edges.This retouch is often abrupt tostrengthen or blunt the edge,perhaps to allow it to be handledcomfortably or to reinforce it forscraping or piercing. Retouchcan also be invasive with longnarrow flakes extending into theobject to form a sharp cuttingedge. This sort of retouch isoften seen on arrowheads and iscreated by applying direct forceto the edge of the flint with an antler or bronzeimplement. It is often referred to as pressure flaking.Flint Factsheet 4 of 8A collection of burnt flint including an arrowhead (left).Note the crazed white surfaces and fragmentary natureof most of the pieces.Burnt flint becomes chemically altered.Its colourchanges to either grey or white. The surfaces becomecrazed and eventually the object will shatter. Althoughmost burnt flint is too shattered to allow the form anddate of the original object to be determined it isarchaeologically important as it can indicate where campfires or hearths were located.