Flint

stone tools · ancient humans · minerals

Sharp stone tools. Flint breaks into pieces with razor-sharp edges, making it perfect for cutting, scraping, and hunting. Ancient people shaped flint into knives, arrowheads, and spear tips for survival.

Creating fire. When you strike flint against steel or another hard rock, it sparks hot enough to light dry grass or wood on fire. This discovery changed human history by giving people control over fire.

Made of quartz. Flint is a hard form of the mineral quartz, the same material found in sand and crystals. It forms inside chalk and limestone deposits over millions of years.

Breaking patterns. Flint has a special property called conchoidal fracture, which means it breaks with smooth, curved surfaces instead of shattering randomly. This made it easier for ancient toolmakers to shape it into useful forms.