Flint
- This article is about the rock. For other uses see Flint (disambiguation)
Flint (or
flintstone) is a hard,
sedimentary cryptocrystalline silica rock with a glassy appearance. Flint is usually dark grey, blue, black, or deep brown in colour. It occurs chiefly as
nodules and masses in chalks and limestones.
Along with
chert, this
mineral was one of the most commonly used materials for the manufacture of
stone tools during the
Stone Age, as it splits into into thin, sharp splinters called flakes or blades (depending in the shape) when struck by another hard object (such as a
hammerstone made of another material). It remained an essential
mineral resource for making
fire, including the flintlocks on early
firearms, until the close of the
18th century.
In Europe, some of the best flint has come from Belgium (Obourg, flint mines of Spiennes), the coastal chalks of the English Channel, the Paris Basin, the Sennonian deposits of Rügen and the Jurassic deposits of the Kraków-area in Poland. Flint mining is attested since the Palaeolithic, but became more common since the Neolithic (Michelsberg culture, Funnelbeaker culture).
See also: chalcedony, chert, obsidian, List of minerals
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