Levallois core and flake (video)
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This film shows the making of an innovative stone tool developed first by the Neanderthals.
Around 300,000 years ago Neanderthals began to shape stone cores that they could carry with them as a kind of toolkit. From this portable core, they struck off flakes and then skilfully made them into tools for specific purposes that included cutting, scraping, piercing and carving.
This kind of technology shows that Neanderthals were using available resources more efficiently than earlier humans. It meant they could prepare the cores in advance and travel far beyond where they found the raw material.
It is known as the Levallois technique, named after the site in France where such tools were first found.
