Flint was the It Stone, of the Stone Age. Without Flint’s many applications, the tools which characterize this era, would not have been possible. No other mineral (there’s a reason they’re called the Flintstones) could have been more beneficial to the people of this early epoch. Flint allowed them to create the tools necessary for their survival. So flint might well be the first tool (outside of river stones being used to smash things) which man employed (not that there’s anything wrong with smashing things every once in a while) on the road to civilization.
Flint is sharp edged (think arrowheads), exceptionally hard (almost diamond strength), and durable (weather doesn’t have much effect on it, so it makes a fine building material), making it the stuff, legends, and archeological time periods, are made of. Flint is a form of Chert which is a sedimentary rock made mostly of silica, which itself is formed from organic creatures. However we will focus only on Flint. Because really would you watch the iconic James Coburn in the James Bond parody Our Man Flint if it was called Our Man Chert. I didn’t think so.
Formed as egg shaped nodules in the chalk deposits of ancient sea beds it was not only one of the first objects to be employed as a tool but also the first to be mined by man. In turn making it one of the first commodities traded. And like anything used by man, some mines were known for their superior flint. Highly prized (think Egyptian cotton or Rainier cherries) the flint from these sediments would be traded by those who controlled the region and coveted by those who procured it. When you think about the fact that these prehistoric people knew enough about where to find the flint (often many yards below the chalk surface) then maybe they weren’t as dimwitted as we have been led to believe. And this was something Neolithic people living near flint deposits, discovered everywhere on the planet.
Knapping (or flintknapping) is the term used when flint is being used to make another tool. When a chunk of flint is struck it will break into a conical shape. Because of this property of flint it became useful for making superior arrowheads, Spear heads, knifes and axes. However hitting the flint nodule in the sweet spot is not nearly as easy as it sounds. Therefore skilled Flintknappers would have been highly sought after workers in a tribal setting.
Better weapons and tools will allow you to not only survive (there were Saber Toothed Tigers about) but to flourish. Also the flint spears and arrows could be used to bring down dinner in the form of large herbivorous mammals (like the Irish Elk) roaming the Earth. And there are those who consider cooking with fire to be one of the great advances of mankind. Even though I like my steaks rare, a little char on the outside (it kills the bacteria) is just fine. Keeping in the weapons mode, the flintlock mechanism, used to ignite gunpowder, became the standard for muskets used for both hunting and the Army. No flintlocks, no American Revolution.
Now obviously we are not mentioning the other truly remarkable thing about flint; its’ ability to start a fire. Hit a piece of flint together with another stone and sparks fly which in turn can start your tinder to burn and before you know it you have a bonfire. And all you need to do is carry the two pieces of stone in your pocket. Okay maybe it would be smarter to carry them in separate pockets. Even better, when steel appeared about 400 BCE it made for a dynamic duo of fire starting when teamed with flint. As an aside, the flints in modern lighters, even though manmade, are still referred to as flints. All of these extraordinary properties make Flint a true rock star… Sorry.