https://www.facebook.com/104940509109125/

Paleocraft and Skills - Dr. Morgan Roussel

Startpagina
Nederland
Leiden
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©.

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).

09/11/2025

Here some bifacial tools I've made recently on Danish flint slabs (Møns klint).
It's definitely a great material to work with, as compared to some tough French flint. Very fine grains, glassy texture and a glossy look.
All knapped with stones and moose antlers, only the final retouches are done with copper pressure.

These tools are fitting in the late Neolithic/Chalcolithic ~4.5ka yrs ago.

•one sickle blade with a typical crescent shape. 20cm long straight cutting edge.

•one dagger with a total lenght of 22cm, blade is 10cm. Hafted with pine pitch and secured with sinew into a light willow handle.

•one fire kit for which I've reused some flakes -scraper and striker- from the shaping of the dagger blade. The marcassite is coming from North of France.

Nice projects to achieve and more are coming on the same raw material!

29/09/2025

Arrowheads!

Some replicas I've made recently showing the diversity of arrowheads' style and material during the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods.

1st top one is made of antler. Blunt one to knock out small games or large birds. Based on Chalain station XIV(Fr.). Final Neolithic ~4.500 BP.

2nd top one is made of shell. Freshwater mussel. Based on the recent discovery from Norway. Early Bronze Age ~3.600 BP.

3rd bottom one is made of Danish flint. Very common shape with barbs and tang. Pressure flaked with antler. European early Neolithic ~8.000 BP.

4th bottom one is made of Upper Turonian flint (Fr.). Transverse arrowhead with sharp cutting edge. Mesolithic ~11.000BP (shape which persists in the Neolithc).

Shafts (dogwood) and fletching (goose feathers) are in the making😏

17/07/2025

Indirect percussion blades.

A very efficient and precise technique for blade extraction which dates back to the Mesolithic, around 8 thousands years ago.

Displayed blades on the edge of the wooden container show a trapezoidal cross-section, with 2 parallel ridges and straight edges. Those are perfect blanks to make transverse arrowheads. Others, more irregular, broad or pointy will be transformed into end-scrapers or used directly as knives.

So lately, I've been playing with different raw materials. First pict shows light brown flint from Poland, second one shows various bright grey flint from the North of France. Last pict shows various antler punches and my brand new boxwood mallet. Quite efficient!

Peter Wiking
Crafts Of The Past

Adres

Leiden

Website

facebook.com

Meldingen

Wees de eerste die het weet en laat ons u een e-mail sturen wanneer Paleocraft and Skills - Dr. Morgan Roussel nieuws en promoties plaatst. Uw e-mailadres wordt niet voor andere doeleinden gebruikt en u kunt zich op elk gewenst moment afmelden.