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Originally Posted by fearn
I think that's like asking what a stick was used for. They were used for all sorts of things. If you believe McDougall's Born to Run, our ancestors hunted by exhausting their prey through marathon runs, so they probably carried as little as they could get away with. A heavy toolkit of specialized stones is less than useful if you've got a ten mile run before dinner. A generalized cutting edge that you can use to cut down sapling spears, digging sticks, or use as a weapon, that's something that's more useful.
As for heat treatment, given the age of the stones, it's highly likely they went through at least one forest fire, which would provide a heat treatment.
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Very true statements I think.
Research in the south west Uk on "fired flints" suggesets "heat treated flints" was higher than average UK wild fire tempretures. But also not done pre. working. More discareded in deliberate fire pit enviroments.
I realise fireing was used pre, working in some non Uk cultures though. {north Africa etc.}
Spiral