This large silcrete retouched flake is from southeast Queensland.  The artefact was recovered from the surface and likely dates to the Holocene period.

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This flake blank for this tool was struck by hard-hammer percussion from a large river cobble of coarse silcrete. It was subsequently retouched unifacially on the lateral edges and distal end. In southeast Queensland, large flakes like this were typically struck from large cores at the silcrete quarry, the edges trimmed, and the retouched flake exported for use elsewhere. They were multifunctional tools with durable edges, and also served as a source of smaller flakes. This example is minimally reduced–perhaps the material was too coarse to warrant continuing with it–and the form is typical of silcrete quarry exports.

The artefact is curated in the Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology teaching collection, University of New England.

See the annotations for technological details about this stone tool.