Microliths

The whole of the Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) period coincided with the great Pleistocene Ice Age, during which the Northern Hemisphere was largely covered in ice for more than one and a half million years. Early humans visited Northern Europe, the Middle East and China during warmer spells but generally speaking, the nomadic hunters of this age hunted big game and their main lithic technology remained the kind of Acheulian biface core tool illustrated on the book cover at the left.

Twelve thousand years ago, the ice age came to an end, and the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) began. The glaciers retreated to their present position and sea levels rose around the world. In northern Europe these climatic changes were reflected in dramatic changes of landscape. Forests reappeared in place of the glaciers and arctic tundra . The cold-climate big game such as woolly mammoths were replaced by lighter, fleeter forest dwellers such as roe deer, foxes, and wild boar. Catching such nimble prey meant new methods of hunting and new weapons - arrows and spears.

The people of the Mesolithic, still nomadic hunter-gatherers, responded to these changes by developing new lithic technologies, chief among which was the microlith - small stone tools, used to make arrow heads, spears, and other weapons and tools. Microliths are sometimes found in large quantites at sites of Mesolithic age. They were fixed to wooden or bone hafts with resin and possibly twine.

In 2009, Lars Larsson and Arne Sjostrom of the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History of Lund University found a Mesolithic arrow preserved in a peat bog in Sweden. The partly decomposed arrow was reassembled for the photograph above. The microliths are attached to the shaft by resin. (Photo: Arne Sjostrom).

There is no universally accepted definition of the term microlith, especially regarding size. The Dictionary of Archaeology defines ‘microlith’ as ‘Small flint blade, or fraction of blade, often defined as less than 5mm long and 4mm thick.’ However, most sources illustrate microliths in a range of sizes from a few millimetres to almost 2 centimetres wide, and up to 5 centimetres long.

Specialists in lithic technology reserve the term microlith for tools made in a specific process and with a specific notching and snapping technique. The stages of this process are illustrated below.


A bladelet is struck from a micro core.	The proximal end is notched.	The proximal end is snapped off to make a micro burin (or is discarded).	The distal end is also notched.	The distal end is snapped and the flat middle part is retouched.

First, the maker strikes a parallel-sided bladelet from a microlith core. Next, he or she creates a small notch near the proximal end of the blade and snaps off the butt. The snapped butt is referred to as a micro burin. Often it is discarded but sometimes it is retouched to be used as a burin or engraving tool. Sometimes, the distal end of the blade is also notched and snapped off and either discarded or retouched for use. The remaining central part of the blade is then retouched in one of a variety of ways to make shapes such as a point, trapezoid etc., as illustrated above. Bladelets intended for microliths are struck from correspondingly small cores - sometimes worked down to amazingly small sizes.


Bottom: Microburins - proximal ends snapped off. Top: Distal ends snapped off. Click to enlarge.	A microburin: A snapped off proximal end - note the spall removed at top left. Click to enlarge.	Two Microliths - mid sections retouched. Left, parallel. Right trapezoid. Click to enlarge.	Two bladelets retouched as curved points. Click to enlarge.

Examples of tools are found in the field with exceptions to each of the criteria above. Sometimes microliths are made from blades that do not have parallel sides. Sometimes only the butt end is snapped off. Sometimes neither end is snapped off. Sometimes blades appear to have been utilised without being retouched. And in some cases either end of a blade may be snapped off, apparently without creating a preparatory notch. Microliths are often made from flint or chert, but are also known made from quartz and agate.


Flake tools only 3cms high - but not microliths. Click to enlarge.	Microlith bladelets apparently not used. Click to enlarge.

Microlith bladelets are struck from correspondingly small cores, usually either pyramidal or cylindrical. Often they are well worked out - some only a few millimetres high when they are discarded.


Microlith core. Click to enlarge.	Microlith core. Click to enlarge.	Tiny microlith core worked out. Click to enlarge.

Some microliths are unbelievably small and it's difficult to grasp how they were made and what exactly they were used for. All that can be said is that our Mesolithic ancestors were highly successful and the human population grew from less than 100,000 to many millions in only 5,000 years. So their lithic technology was highly successful.

At some major archaeological digs, such as the Mesolithic site at Starr Carr in Yorkshire, and Horsham in Surrey, microliths are very common and hundreds or even thousands of examples have been found. At other sites, few or none are found. There is a distinction recognised by many archaeologists between broad blade microlith technology associated mainly with the early Mesolithic and narrow blade microliths, found mainly at later Mesolithic sites. The narrow blades are often as little as 4 or 5mm wide, while the wider blades may be up to 12mm wide.

In the United States, microlith technology is sometimes referred to as 'inset technology' (as the micro blades are inset into a wooden shaft).

Museum of the stone Age