- 1). Study the prehistoric timeline in the area where you found the tool. Check the websites of regional university archaeology departments, historical societies, museums and other cultural institutions for online guides to the region's prehistory. Buy a guide to local prehistoric peoples or borrow one from a public or university library. Both print and web sources are likely to have sections on stone tools, also called lithics. Familiarize yourself with the terminology experts use to describe stone tools.
- 2). Identify the type of tool so that you know what kinds of stone tools to compare it to. Prehistoric people made tools using techniques suitable to the material. They made hammer and ground-stone tools from rough, granular stones with irregular fracture patterns. They chose hammer stones for their natural size, shape and hardness.
Ground-stone tools tend to be carved, polished and smoothed into mortars and pestles, anvils, bowls or other forms. Smooth rocks that fracture into regular, geometric planes were the most common material for flake tools, including arrowheads and spear points. - 3). Describe the tool form. Note its general shape and size, its weight and whether or not, or to what extent, it was modified. Use these descriptors to determine the tool's probable function. For example, an arrowhead is likely to be light, triangular and have a sharpened edge. A scraper or digging tool will be heavy with an irregularly shaped edge.
Hammer tools can be difficult to date unless you find them with other tools. Ground-stone tools vary over time in size, shape, relative dimensions and things like thickness, depth and geometry (for example, curved versus flattened rims and edges).
Flake tools include cores that are forcefully struck with a hammer stone to create flake scars on the core itself and produce sharp flakes that are also tools. Describe the size, position and number of flake scars. - 4). Search prehistorical resources for tools matching your description of type and form. Use an illustrated timeline of stone tools to visually match your tool with the most likely time period and cultural group.
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