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Paleocraft and Skills - Dr. Morgan Roussel

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Paleocraft and Skills - Dr. Morgan Roussel

Flintknapping, paleolithic technology, experimental archaeology inspired from the European Stone-Age. French. Flintknapper since 2004. Paleolithic archeologist.

PhD (2011) on Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition lithics' industries. Owner of Paleocraft and Skills©.

27/07/2026

Upper Paleo blade production.

Direct percussion with deer antler.
Lower Turonian flint from the center-west part of France.
The exact same flint used by gunflint makers during the XIXth century.

13/07/2026

Barbed Bone Point.

A replica quite matching the originals😉

Fully made with stone tools from a deer leg long bone (metapodial). Unilateral and oblique barbs grooved using several raw flint blades. Final polishing done on a fine grain sandstone slab.

L: 75mm, W: 17mm, T: 5mm.

~1000 of such points were discovered on the south Dutch coast. They are dating back to the Mesolithic ~9ka-7ka yrs ago. Originated from Doggerland, the submerged part of the North Sea linking England and the Netherlands, they were used to hunt aquatic and terrestrial mammals using bow and arrows.

Some of those were made of deer antler or even human bone (see Dekker et al. 2021). But not this one 😅

31/05/2026

Arrows and quiver!

I've recently finished this nice project with 4 arrows and a leather quiver.

You'll recognize the style of the arrows and their tips, based on Mesolithic and Neolithic examples from Europe.

They've got the same measurements: 85cm for the dogwood shaft and the same style of fletching: 3 geese feathers secured with sinew.

Flint is used for two heads : one transverse (blade fragment) and one with 3 microlithics (small triangular shape).

Another shows a tip hardened by fire, and the last one is blunt, made of antler (for knocking off small games).
Pine pitch is used to attach the heads.

The quiver is greatly inspired by the one from Ötzi, same dimensions, same type of lacing, the 2 flaps, and the Hazel branche holding everything together.
Material used here is veg tanned leather and not a roedeer hide as it is suggested for the original.

The transversal flap is very useful to protect the fletching and also allows a quick grab of the arrows (picts 4 and 5).

Some improvements for the next quiver to be made for sure, but I'm already happy with this one! 🏹🏹🏹

12/05/2026

Mesolithic tools replicas 8ka-6ka yrs ago.

A flint adze fixed into an antler sleeve with a mix of pine resin and beeswax. Dogwood handle 45 cm. Perfect tool to work green wood: chopping branches or shaping small wooden projects.

A slotted dagger with flint microliths. Glued with pine pitch on a splitted deer bone metapodial, 21 cm.
An efficient tool, used mostly as shown by microwear analysis on archaeological examples, to work plant fibers (cutting stems, harvesting,...).

12/04/2026

Antler fish-hooks and antler harpoon.

Projects achieved using only flint-tools. Cutting, grooving and scraping with raw flint blades or with flint burins. Grinding on sandstone slabs.

• Using antler for the fish-hooks is an "easy" way of doing it. The first cut is from a transversal section of the antler beam. Some rare upper Palaeolithic examples are known, made on the same material, during the Magdalenian ~17ka yrs ago.

With the Mesolithic, ~10ka yrs ago, fishing has become an important food resource. Hundreds of archaeological fish-hooks are known. But mostly made of bone.

• For the harpoon, the first cut is on the longitudinal section of the antler beam. Bilateral barbs are grooved with a flint burin. Offset hole is drilled all the way through from both sides.

Typical shape from the Middle and Final Neolithic ~ 5ka-3ka yrs ago, based on examples discovered in lacustrian archaeological contexts in France and Switzerland.

15/02/2026

Ongoing experimental archaeology project in which I explore, together with colleagues from Liège (BE), flintknapping techniques from the Middle Stone Age on South-african and Lesotho raw materials-agate and chalcedony-
Great results so far! To be continued...

13/12/2025

Neolithic dagger blade.

Fully knapped with stones and moose antler billets. Retouched by pressure with deer antler.

Quite happy on this one, with a homogeneous lenticular cross-section and a preserved cortical base as seen on some of the originals. I succeeded in driving long sub-parallel final pressure flakes, creating a sharp cutting edge on both sides.

L: 14cm, W: 4.5cm, T: 1cm

From a tabular block of Møns klint flint (DK).

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