The edge of an obsidian blade is sharper than a modern steel surgical scalpel, and a small cottage industry arose in the 1980s to supply obsidian pressure blades for eye surgery. It is clearly stated that the same material (obsidian, a volcanic glass) is used by some surgeons as by prehistoric humans. The Aztecs in the historical period in Mexico made long blades from obsidian by holding the core in their feet and pressing off the blades with a special chest crutch. Answer (1 of 5): Read carefully at How Stone Age blades still cut it in surgery. These large honey-coloured flint macroblades were traded extensively, and archaeologists have discovered caches with hundreds of blades destined for this exchange.īlades were also made using a pressure flaking technique, creating blades and blade cores that look almost machine-made in their geometrical precision.
The Grand Pressigny flint quarries in France were a locus of indirect percussion blade-making in the Neolithic period. In some parts of the world, indirect percussion was used to make blades, by striking a bone or antler punch. Many of these obsidian blades, hafted as knives or spears, were collected by overseas museums. Similar macroblades were made from obsidian by historic flintknappers on Manus Island, off the coast of Papua New Guinea. These macroblades were used on darts or hafted as knives, and were extensively traded. In the historic period, hammerstones were used to make large blades by Aboriginal flintknappers in various parts of Australia. The discarded blade core preserves the parallel, elongated blade scars.īlades were often struck by direct percussion using a hammerstone or soft billet. The blades are then struck in succession down the ridges to create the elongated and parallel-sided blades. To set up the core, flakes must first be removed to form a platform surface at the top of the core, and more flakes must be struck down the core face to create long, straight ridges. Blades often served as the blanks for other tool types, such as microliths and arrowpoints.īlade-making was highly technical because the stone core must be worked in a very specific way to set up the geometries for repeated blade removal.
Blade-making technology arose independently in most parts of the world because the long cutting edges on blades are ideal for a variety of tasks. Some historical reports even say that the stone was even experimented with and used as scalpel blades for surgery, which means it was really effective for physical uses. Blades measuring more than about 40-50mm long are sometimes called macroblades, and smaller versions are called microblades. Back in the day, black obsidian was used to create knives, arrows, and other forms of tools and weapons. A blade has parallel or approximately parallel edges, and parallel ridges, called arrises, that extend the length of the dorsal surface.
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