A microlith is a small stone tool, typically knapped of flint or chert, usually about three centimetres long or less. Microliths were either produced from small blades (microblades) or made by snapping normal big blades in a controlled manner, which leaves a very typical piece of waste (microburin). The latter type of microliths are called geometric microliths. They can be formed as various kinds of triangles, lunate shaped, trapezes, etc. The shape of the microlith can be used for dating. Some types of microliths, such as trapezes, were used in the Neolithic as well (the Linear Pottery culture and Funnelbeaker culture). The rocky side of a mountain creek near Orosí, Costa Rica. ... A flint nodule from the Onondaga limestone layer, Buffalo, New York. ... Chert Chert (IPA: ) is a fine-grained silica-rich cryptocrystalline sedimentary rock that may contain small fossils. ... A microburin is the residual product of the creation of a microlith during flint tool manufacture in the European Mesolithic. ... An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools. ... The Linear Pottery culture or (German) Linearbandkeramik (abbr. ... The Funnelbeaker culture is the archeological designation for a late Neolithic culture in what is now northern Germany, the Netherlands, southern Scandinavia and Poland. ...

Microliths were produced during the middle stone age (Mesolithic), in a period which is in some areas denoted as the epipalaeolithic. They were probably used as barbs on arrows, spears and other composite tools. Stone Age fishing hook. ... The Mesolithic (Greek mesos=middle and lithos=stone or the Middle Stone Age) was a period in the development of human technology between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods of the Stone Age. ... The Epipalaeolithic (or Epi-Palaeolithic, Epipaleolithic, or Epi-Paleolithic) was a period in the development of human technology that immediately precedes the neolithic period, as an alternative to mesolithic. ... An arrow is a pointed projectile that is shot with a bow. ... Hunting spear and knife, from Mesa Verde National Park. ...

They are typically one centimetre long and half a centimetre wide when finished. A centimetre (American spelling centimeter, symbol cm) is a unit of length that is equal to one hundredth of a metre, the current SI base unit of length. ...