Microlith

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Microliths are tiny stone tools, usually made of flint or chert, about 1 cm long and 0.5 cm wide. They were made by people across Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia starting around 6,000 years ago and were used as parts of hunting weapons and other tools.

They are created from small blades or blade fragments by careful retouching, leaving a small waste piece called a microburin. The tools are small but well-worked, distinguishing them from random bits of flint.

There are two main families: laminar and geometric. Laminar microliths are a bit larger and were common from late in the Upper Paleolithic into the Epipaleolithic and through the Mesolithic into the Neolithic. Geometric microliths are triangular, trapezoid or lunate (half-moon shaped) and are typical of the Mesolithic and Neolithic. Geometric microliths were usually made with the microburin technique and finished by edge retouching.

Microliths were mounted on wood or shafts with resin or fiber to make spear tips, harpoons and, later, arrows. A single spear might carry six to eighteen microliths; arrows often had one or two. They helped increase the cutting and piercing power of light projectiles, and wear patterns show use on the tips.

Across the world, many regional styles exist. Some famous finds include backed bladelets in Magdalenian sites, and a notable discovery at Lascaux showing resin and a horn handle impression. In Brittany’s Téviec cemetery, a geometric microlith was found lodged in a skeleton. In Scandinavia and Britain, microliths appear on arrows and spears, sometimes with groupings preserved in the shaft residues.

In Australia, backed artefacts are common, called Bondi points and other shapes, often used as part of composite tools, and in at least one case embedded in a human skeleton around 4000 years ago.

Researchers use the style and wear of microliths to date archaeological sites, with laminar microliths marking earlier periods and geometric microliths marking later periods. Recent work even suggests microlith use in India back to around 45,000 years ago, and in Sri Lanka to about 33,000 years ago.

Today, microliths tell us about how ancient people hunted and made efficient, portable tools across different environments.