ancient history of mankind is inextricably linked with the development of the fire, studying the properties of useful plants and the domestication of animals.But only one thing gave the name of the two great historical periods - Paleolithic and Neolithic.It is a stone flint.Mineral that allowed a person to become king of nature.
If judged in terms of mineralogy, the flint is nothing special: it is almost completely composed of silica material, color infused salts of other chemical compounds.Due to the diversity of these substances and a wide range of conditions of formation of flint stone can have the most unexpected form and color.
Geologists describe him as "tough durable unit" amorphous and cryptocrystalline form of silica.
This stone is very weak shine when you look at it, put in front of a powerful light source.Very often it has an organic origin, as the silicon was part of mollusk shells.
Over millions of years of sediment on the bottom of ancient seas, first turned to opal, and then in other minerals, including chalcedony.Their color is so varied that immediately come to mind are gems.Oddly, the stone flint sometimes really used in this role, although its scope is very different.
Long ago, people noticed that it can be easily polished, and then assessed and its hardness, due to which the mineral began to be used as material for making tools and even dishes.Then people learned it properly chop and grind, then flint stone became a formidable weapon, embodied in the tips of spears and arrows.
If you look at it under a microscope section, you can see tiny needles sea sponge skeletons of radiolarians, tiny leaf incredibly tiny bivalves.
Education flint is to this day.Waves of the tide, the river and the rain gradually grind down rocks, carrying crushed stone dust far from the ocean.It also get the chemicals that have found way to the surface after the volcanic eruptions.Gradually we are going into the thinnest silica colloidal suspension, which is suspended in the water column.Part of this suspension is used marine protozoa and shellfish, which the body needs material to build shells.Gradually formed flint stone, the description has been given above.
Remember how we talked about the "viscosity" of the material?It was she allowed to use it in the manufacture of stone tools: Cobble impact not go to pieces, and split, forming a neat plate.
It processed flint gave man an unprecedented advantage over the wild animals.And when was open at impact its ability to strike sparks, when the people opened a new world - a world of heat, fire and security.The food prepared on it was delicious and nutritious, and most powerful predators were afraid of the heat, and light an open flame.
We hope that you have learned how to look flint stone.Its role in the history of our civilization is undeniable.
