Flintknapping

Our 1st Technological Invention as Humans

These hands-on workshops are a unique combination of range from survey courses covering the basics of 2.5 million years of the various ways our ancestors created tools from stone to in-depth courses focused on a particular technology. Whether you want to learn the strategies our ancestors used to create amazing tools out of rock or just want to learn how to knap an arrowhead to use for hunting or a scraper to dehair your deerskin, this course can teach you want you need!

The first tools ever made were constructed of stone over 2.5 million years ago. These tools represented a monumental achievement for our ancestors, allowed them to interact with their environments in unique ways access more nutrient dense food then ever before. These technologies paved the path for brain growth and future technological development. Reconnecting with this, the earliest of primitive technologies, is one of the best ways to ….

Students will learn:

The basics of rock formation and how to locate/select/quarry the right type of rock from which to construct stone tools,
Stone tool production basics,
Safety,
Stone tool creation basics,
One or more of the following reduction techniques: bipolar, block-on-block, hard hammer percussion, soft hammer percussion, indirect percussion, pressure flaking, and
One or more of the following technologies: Oldowan, Acheulean, Levallois, blade and core, unifacial, and bifacial

Complete our Class Request Form

Here’s a great video to give a glimpse of what you will learn in this class

Did you Watch the Great Human Race?

Every episode showcased the importance of stone tool development through our evolutionary past.

I started by recreating an Oldawan toolkit in Tansania representing 2.5 million years ago and ended 4,000 years ago in Oregon making a New World toolkit.