Flint Art 2017

Flint: aka firestone, chert, silex
Comes from Old High German word flins, that means as much as "stone, pebble, rock" and traces back to the root [s]plei for "to split".

Sharp edged, hard, easy to break: These properties made flint attractive for Stone Age people. Ever since,mother nature did not support our species with claws and teeth as sufficiently as our competitors in the food chain. Only our big brain and our hands as a team are capable to compensate this handicap, as the head invents implements which are formed and used by the hand. The first hand axes date back to 1.7 Million years, many archaeologists regard them as the "Swiss army knife of Prehistory", because they can be used for chopping, sawing, drilling, scraping, scratching and cutting.

At the time of the reindeer hunters, elegant leaf points and fine blades were part of the basic hardware. Bones, antler, wood, hide, tendons and much more served our ancestors for mastering every day s life - for processing them you have to have flint tools.

In the Neolithic Age from 5500 BC on, the rural era starts in Europe. Man builds big houses from massive wooden trunks, and hence the time of ground stone tools begins, too. In the North, people resort to the opulent resources of flint there for making axes.

In Prehistory, arrowheads were made from flint throughout the world. The best known flint tip might be the one that killed "Ötzi", the Ice Man.

The wonderful daggers which were manufactured at the end of the Neolithic in the North are also called "the last hurrah of flintknapping", as from then on bronze was used for making cutting tools, a material which was far superior to flint.

After having been used for Millions of years, in the 21st Century flint has disappeared from most people s sight. Only a small band of enthusiasts, among them many archaeologists, but also crafters, stick to the ancient traditions of flintknapping and try to keep them alive. They meet at annual symposia and