Explore Prehistoric ‘worked’ flint 

It is relatively common to find prehistoric ‘worked’ flint in areas where early humans lived. Finding examples, however, is still exciting. Such pieces bring us into direct contact with prehistoric people, touching the objects that they created and used. Flint was a crucial material for making tools and weapons throughout the Stone Age and beyond.

It’s easy to identify if you’ve found a prehistoric tool by the obvious chip marks that are usually visible when such objects have been ‘worked’ or ‘knapped’. However, out of context, it’s not always easy to tell if a flint object is from the Stone or Bronze Age. Archaeologists often need to known more about the stratigraphy – the soil layer – that the object was found in.

Comparing arrow heads from the Stone Age and the Bronze Age
Malton Museum, North Yorkshire

The shape of this worked flint is recognisably that of an arrowhead. Dating from the Bronze Age – approximately 2,000 to 700 BCE (although the exact dates vary across Europe and the rest of the world) – it comes from a period when bronze was increasingly the main metal used for toolmaking. However, flint was still very useful.

Flint is a material that breaks in predictable ways, allowing tools made from flint to be ‘designed’. It is also quite strong and its cutting edge can be razor sharp.

This arrow head would have been attached to a shaft and used for firing at prey with a bow. As the arrow shaft and bow would have been made from wood, they have not survived. The flint head has been knapped to create a point at one end and two ‘barbs’ on either side. This shape is effective because when the arrow hits its target or ‘prey’, the barbs help it stay in place slowing the animal down.

Barbed point arrow head from Malton Museum

Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Comparing the shape of arrow points

This arrow head, from an earlier period, is much simpler in design. Examples from the Stone Age tend to be oval or leaf shaped, before the later development of barbs.

It’s easy for us to compare this earlier design unfavourably to later weapons and to even underestimate the skills shown during the Stone Age. But our prehistoric ancestors used the resources available to them to increase their advantages over the animals they were hunting. They likely selected wood for the shafts based on qualities such as straightness, flexibility, and strength.

Archaeologists have been found arrow shafts in remarkably well-preserved archaeological sites, for example glacial environments which helped to preserve the organic materials. Ötzi the Iceman (from around 3300 BCE) was found in the Alps with arrows made with hazel shafts, providing direct evidence of the materials used. 

Stone Age arrow head from Malton Museum

Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Flint arrow head 
Grantown Museum, The Highlands of Scotland

This arrow head found locally to Grantown Museum gives us yet another example of the variety of shapes of prehistoric flint arrow heads.

A number of examples of worked flint have been found in the region, evidence of the presence of prehistoric people in the Highlands of Scotland.   

Stone Age arrow head from Malton Museum

Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Activity Hired or Fired? – Would you have made a good prehistoric hunter-gatherer? 

Talking Points

How easy do you think it would be to ‘knap’ or chip a block of flint into a small shape like this?

Why do you think the barbed point was a more effective arrow design than  the triangular and oval shapes without barbs?

Why do you think flint was a useful material to use as an arrow head? 

What skills do you think you would have needed to use a bow and arrow to hunt prey?

Have you ever fired an arrow? How accurate was your shot?

What else do you think you’d find challenging about prehistoric life?

Vocabulary:

Knapping: the shaping of a material eg: flint by striking it with a harder object such as stone. This way flint pieces are chipped off and the flint is created into a desired shape

Neolithic: this term means the New Stone Age and began about 6000 years ago. It is when hunter-gatherers started to settle in one place and start farming

Hands on History

You can borrow these objects as part of a loan box at Malton Museum. There are more loan boxes to borrow across North Yorkshire, including from Craven Museum in Skipton and the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes.

Schools can take part in a ‘Stone Age to Iron Age workshop to explore prehistoric tools at Craven Museum in Skipton and a ‘Stone Age Scarborough’ workshop from Scarborough Museums and Galleries.

Find out more about Highland Collections on Museum of the Highlands.

Skip to content