Stone flint: material that determined the history

The most ancient history of mankind is inseparably linked with the development of fire, the study of the properties of useful plants and the domestication of domestic animals. But only one thing gave the name to two huge historical periods - the Paleolithic and the Neolithic. It is a stone of flint. This mineral allowed man to become the king of nature.

If to judge from the point of view of mineralogy, then in flint there is nothing special: it is almost entirely composed of silica material that is colored by salts of other chemical compounds. Due to the variety of these substances and a wide range of formation conditions, stone flint can have the most unexpected shape and color.

Geologists describe it as a "viscous strong aggregate" of amorphous and cryptocrystalline forms of silica.

This stone is very weakly visible, if you look at it, putting a powerful light source opposite it. Very often it has an organic origin, since silicon was part of the shells of mollusks.

For millions of years the sedimentary rocks on the bottom of the ancient seas first turned into opals, and only then into other minerals, including chalcedony. Their color is so diverse that precious stones immediately come to mind. Ironically, the stone of flint is sometimes really used in such a role, although the field of its application is quite different.

A long time ago, a man noticed that it can be easily polished, and then appreciated its hardness, because of which the mineral was used as a material for making tools and even utensils. Then people learned to properly split and sharpen it, after which the stone flint became a formidable weapon, embodied in the tips of spears and arrows.

If you look at its slice under a microscope, you can see tiny needles of sea sponges, skeletons of radiolarians, the smallest flaps of incredibly tiny bivalve mollusks.

Education flint goes to this day. Waves of tides, rivers and rains are gradually rocking, carrying the dust crushed into dust far into the ocean. Chemical substances that find their way to the surface after volcanic eruptions fall into it . Gradually, silica is collected in the finest colloidal suspension, which hangs in the water column. Part of this suspension uses sea protozoa and shellfish, the body of which needs material to build shells. Gradually, a stone of flint is formed, the description of which was given above.

Do you remember how we talked about the "viscosity" of this material? It was she who allowed it to be used in the production of stone tools: the cobblestone did not break apart into pieces, but split, forming neat plates.

It was the processed flint that gave the man an unprecedented advantage over wild animals. And when his ability to strike sparks was struck, then a new world opened up - a world of warmth, fire and security. The food that was cooked on it was tastier and more nutritious, and the strongest predators feared the heat and light of an open flame.

We hope that you have learned about how the stone looks like flint. His role in the history of our civilization is undeniable.