How To Make A Palaeolithic Handaxe - Flintknapping for
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- Join experimental archaeologist, Dr. James Dilley, for #KnapTime where he will be explaining and demonstrating the prehistoric technique of flintknapping. This week we'll be taking a trip back to the beginning of the human timeline, exploring the Palaeolithic period and its most iconic tool - the handaxe.
Before you join in and have a go at flintknapping yourself, be sure to watch the all important Flintknapping Health & Safety video: • Health & Safety while ...
Filmed & Edited by Emma Jones of ELWJ Media - www.elwjmedia.co.uk
Sound edited by Matt Downes
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To find out more about my flintknapping and experimental archaeology visit my website or follow me on social media!
Website: www.ancientcraf...
Twitter: / ancientcraftuk
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Also, this is such a great demonstration of the cognitive abilities of early forms of human, homo erectus etc.
I'm always amazed by the size of the flint needed at the start. Great vid!
Tis the most cool Stefan. He of the take-away spoon.
you are the guy who makes oscar-worthy videos on hominins. kudos man
You are an excellent teacher, Sir, and you have incredible knapping skills. Your verbal & presentation skills are more like those of a college professor. Extremely well done!
Thanks Richard! Appreciate the kind the words
Apologies if the sound is really quiet. We’re working to improve that for the next episode!
I learned to flint nap many years ago and I always had difficulty working big pieces. Thanks to your video I now know what I was doing wrong, Thank You. I haven't made a piece for a long time except for a new flint for a flintlock pistol but I really enjoyed your video.
The BBC should get you to judge a TV series where amateur knappers compete against each other. Maybe "The Great British Flake Off"? 😁
haha! I'd watch that!!
It’d be a funny one-off! Sadly too much “easy viewing TV” these day with little interesting content. I have been told by a producer I am “too academic”!
@@ancientcraftUK Find another producer! :-)
Great idea!!!
Amazing! I have some beautiful tiny arrowheads from Algeria, would love to see how they were made - the opposite end of the size spectrum!
Your work and presentation of technique is very helpful in appreciating this paleolithic technology. I wouldn't be worried if your pieces end up looking refined. Doubtless there were some perfectionists among paleolithic craftspeople.
Thank you for your excellent explanations of techniques here. I’m looking forward to learning more before starting my first piece. I have been collecting ancient tools from my small farm and always wanted to try knapping!
I'm about half way through getting my BS in Anthropology, and I just recently realized a local rock shop sells flint and obsidian for knapping, I'm about to try my hand at making a handaxe for the first time. This has been quite an informative video, and I'm sure this channel is going to be a useful resource for me in the future as I attempt more lithics
Great video Dill, really like your way of describing what you are doing and then mixing in some of the history and theory too. Can't wait for next week!
Great deep dive. Enjoyed that ❤
Great video James! Hugs from Brazil!
Thanks Costa! Stay safe my friend
Amazing channel! I couldn't help but imagine someone sitting there teaching that to a family member.
Learned who you were from Stefan Milo. Impressed then, impressed now!
Great vid, favourite part - 19:58
Amazing, i will try it
great video, it has inspired me to pick my stones up again
Every time I go to knap i always " accidentally" make one of these lol. Fantastic multi tool. I'm a neanderthal at heart I guess lol. Btw thank you for these videos they help me alot with my studying to be a experimental archaeologist. I'm hoping I can study on the neanderthals, as well as the clovis.
So interesting! Excellent knapping and teaching skills! I’m curious, have, or can Paleolithic hand axes be found here in the states as well? If so, do they resemble those found in Europe and the UK, or are they styled differently?
Thanks. And again, excellent video, and very enjoyable, informative, and interesting.
Great instructional video. As a new knapper myself, I was excited to find your channel. Thank you for taking the time for this and the detailed explanations.
Ok started watching. Then at 3:15 I start getting anxiety. Can you imagine getting caught up in the video moment and wacking an edge off that original hand axe by mistake. Haha I don't ever want to see you holding an artifact in one hand and a hammer stone in the other. This art is nervy enough as it is lol great work mate thanks for your efforts to teach us 💚
AncientCraft UK: thank you very kindly for this demonstration. There was a lot of meat in it.
Around the 25 minute mark, I thought that your hand axe begin to look like a stone ulu, and couldn’t help but think that the extra weight in the bottom of such a tool would sure make cutting a much easier job, because the wielder of the tool would not have to use nearly as much force.
As I have never wielded a stone blade, I must ask how comparable they are to use to a modern knife.
And it’s possible that the answer will be in one of your other videos. This is the first that I’ve seen of yours. Thanks again! :-)
Can you up the volume? Great channel.
Fascinating, thanks!
Do you have a Video of demonstrating using a hand ax while butchering? Thanks Mark
Not yet, although we're hearing the requests so watch this space!
I once found a large stone that looked like a handaxe, it had flake scars and was shaped like a typical roundish handaxe. But the weird thing was that the stone was unlike anything I have seen in the area and not of good enough quality to be flaked. Is there any way that some of the earliest stone tools could have gone through chemical processes that changed them from chert or flint to something else, like having become a psuedomorph of some sort? i wish I had kept the stone but I thought it must just be a coincidental resemblance to a stone tool since people didn't arrive in this area until a few tens of thousands of years ago and hand axes were earlier tools.
Nice removal of that hinge at the end there...
Very good vid. First one I've seen on making hand axes but I have one suggestion. Demonstrate its cutting ability on some leather or meat after you're done knapping.
Hi Nick, it’s definitely something we’re looking into for a separate series that looks at tool usage and more into the archaeology. Thanks for your suggestion and watching!
Oh, it will cut!
Dr Dilley,
What weight of hammer stone do you use in comparison to the flint nodule, or isn't there a rule?
Thanks.
No rules specifically, just if you need to detach a larger flake, use a larger hammer stone!
Thank you - I did indeed enjoy the presentation.
So what of all the rubble at your feet? What becomes of all those pointy sharp edged buggers? Are they all redundant and was that the case in the Palaeolithic too?
Nice to hear the differing 'thock' as the antler removed flakes as opposed to the higher pitch of the hammer stone.
A lone hunter was always very exposed but a group of humans must have presented quite a challenge to even Lions and Hyena. I recall a TV segment of Masai was it (?) who as a trio who approached and chased off a group of lions from a kill to then cut away a whole leg of Zebra and then return with it. These Lions managed the expression of outraged...Very smug Masai too!!
I would say don't throw your spears unless you have a spare with you. You might just piss them off.
Some of the waste flakes could be used. If we’re staying strictly Palaeolithic and not keeping them for Neolithic arrowheads, I would use a fresh flake to cut through animal hide/hair as it would blunt a handaxe.
@@ancientcraftUK So how do you dispose of all the flakes safely?
interesting question regarding groups of humans chasing away carnivores/predatores. in fact, this is topic of debate in archaeological discussion on early hominini diet. it may occured that groups of hominini (australopithecus, homo habilis/rudolphensis, during ESA early stone age to acheulean) indeed chased away successful predators and thus taking advantage of their prey. or animals that died naturally. stone tools could have provided the chance of quick removal of fleshy, highly nutrient parts of the carcass and make a run for it before predators took the rest of it. this is implying that active hunting of medium to large sized or fast moving mammals like hares or bovidae, cervidae and equidae is questionable during ESA and early acheulean (to probably 600 kya). I did a scientific presentation on that recently for my paleo/mesolithic class.
plant based diet such as roots, fruit, nuts and leafes as well as slow moving animals like snails, tortoires, oysters and alike could have been the main ingredients for early hominini diet during ESA.
for more on this topic see:
- 'man the hunter' hypothesis in the 1960ies.
- hunting hypothesis challenged by lewis binford, r. blumenshine.
- meat model by h. bunn, m. dominguez-rodrigo, t. pickering.
@@crow1066 disposal of flakes in prehistory: simply leave them. during ESA (early stone age or lower paleolithic, ca. 2,6mya to 300/250kya), long time shelters and residing spots was the exception. people were scavanging through their territories, looking for sources of food and resources. during middle stone age, or middle paleolithic, some form of residual area in combination with temporary shelters (kill sites, resource gathering spots, foraging camps) came up, depending on specific traditions by the groups. 'collectors' might have installed a long term camp, maybe seasonal, and established logistic mobility to resource and hunting spots (source: binford 1979, binford 1980. "provisioning places": kuhn s.l. 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995).
archaeological evidence shows that people in ESA left their disposals where it most likely has been created in first place. this also is part of experimental archaology, where flint knappers would document their flake debitage after they are done knapping, and that sometimes looks very familiar to archaological records on site, taking in mind geological site formation processes.
Excellent flintknapper.....even a more excellent teacher......How old were you when you first started flintknapping ?
10 years old! Funnily enough some recent garden landscaping has found the spot I used to practice was directly above where someone had worked flint over 4000 years ago!
Thank you. I have been picking up flints from the Thames foreshore (I have a license) and I think I have found some tools but I am not always clear which are tools and which have been eroded in the river. Am I right in thinking that a thumbhole in the flint means that it has been worked?
“Thumbholes” are not particularly good indicators that a piece of flint has been worked. When I’m knapping I don’t consciously create flake scars for particular finger or thumb grips, it just doesn’t come into the thought process
Does anyone know where i can get the tools for flint napping?
So is there evidence on any of the original pieces of abraded edges in the area where their hand would hold onto these axes? Seems like that would be surest way to avoid getting hands cut.
To some extent yes, though I’ve used handaxes with sharp edges at the base without cutting myself. The key is to keep it clamped to your hand. The edge is like a bread knife, and you can hold a bread knife tightly without cutting yourself. If it moved in your hand it would cut.
Look at the Calico site hand axes
i wonder if i would find any flint just lying around to try this with...
The bias toward male use in meat preparation damages the archeological method. Handaxes were so useful that they must have been used in preparation of plant material, as steel knives are today. Recent studies show that the majority of calories in ancient times was probably from root vegetables.
I presume, given the amount of work that goes into the bulk of the shaping, that they would have been re-sharpened once dulled.
I should have watched to 38:00 before asking.
I wonder i some of the flakes where used to make other tools.
I am surprised that those old Stone Age people didn’t deplete the world’s flint supply.
What to use as a substitute for the antler?
And what kind antler is it? How do i make one
It’s red deer antler, but many types of antler work fine. You can also use box wood hammers which are popular with flintknappers in France and Iberia
It's not abo, but a dowel with a copper end cap, domed, or not... makes a pretty good substitute. They're called copper boppers. You can weight them with various materials, lead, bb's etc.
@@dooleyfussle8634 thanks a lot man
5:20 Isn't that highly debated? You say that as if it's to be taken for granted...
I am going out to find some rocks :D
How durable are these?
Very durable as cutting tools but not as impact tools. The serrated edge helps it to keep it's sharpness for a long time.
Up the volume of your videos please.
We had some compression issues with our first uploads but we've learnt some lessons and hopefully the recent videos are better. We'll be revisiting #KnapTime with a second season soon 😁
@@ancientcraftUK Great. Looking forward to it.
Great presentation, but the volume is WAY too low!
I know, sorry. There was a compression issue when these were uploaded. We’ve learned, and hopefully the recent videos are better
You see that 'hamburger' rubber you use, rotate it 90 degrees and you're on the way to a 4 knobber😃.
It is not a handax. It is a prepared core for supplying flakes to make tools with.
If that is the case, then why do hand axes show edge wear indicative of intentional tool use
@@scottmckinny6879 The first people who found them called them hand axes without any thought but more advanced Archaeologist called them prepared cores. But you can call them whatever you want. I am 74 years old and have been studying lithics since I was 5 years old when I found my first biface. 35 or so years ago I started studying flakes and found this is the bases of the technology.
@@ThomasSmith-os4zc dr dilley said in this video that handaxe is a poor choice of words, but that does not change the fact that they were used as actual tool. They weren’t just a means to get flakes. If that was the case, the handaxe would not have a point or wear on the edge.
@@scottmckinny6879 that is so they could remove different size and shape flakes.
sold out :(
They'll be back in stock soon!
I blame Saturn.
This one is super quiet.
Our first few videos were a learning curve so yes unfortunately this video is a bit quieter than we had hoped. We're planning on revisiting some of our earlier content as we've now addressed the sound compression of UA-cam
you really need to work on your audio
The good news is we have and the updated version of this video is premiering tonight!
you need a better microphone
Dr eh? In experimental archeology? FAF how sad, some folks do anything for clout/views.