Flake Tool
Unknown Artist
ca. 90,000–35,000 B.C.
Medium
Flint
Dimensions
No measurement
Classification
Flake tool
Period
Middle Paleolithic
Department
Egyptian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of C.T. Currelly, 1906
Accession Number
06.322.35
About this artwork
This flint flake tool represents a fundamental technological achievement of Middle Paleolithic humans who inhabited the Western Desert's Kharga Oasis region between approximately 90,000 and 35,000 BCE. During this period, stone tool technology underwent a crucial transformation from the emphasis on core tools like Acheulean handaxes to sophisticated flake tools produced using prepared core techniques, most notably the Levallois method. This revolutionary approach, developed between 400,000 and 2...