To the untrained eye, Aboriginal stone artefacts can look just like a pile of small rocks but take a careful look and you’ll be able to pick out their defining characteristics. The most common artefacts are stone flakes, which are produced when hit with a hammerstone to remove them from a larger piece of rock (core).
Key features of stone flakes
Platform – the part of the rock that was hit by the hammerstone
Point of percussion – a small crushed area where the hammerstone made its direct impact
Bulb of percussion – a raised area that is bulbous and is caused by the wave of force moving through the stone to detach the flake from the core
Termination – a thin sharp wedge at the bottom of the flake and the last piece of the flake to detach from the core