Shouldered point
ul. Spadzista B1
Width: 18mm
Thickness: 6mm
Shouldered points are extremely rare type of flint tools. They are blades, such as knives or points, but characterised by a symmetrical tip and asymmetric shafts. The uneven shape of the shaft is due to a slot on point’s side. It was probably used to fix the tool in a handle. The specimen on display was produced using a technique consisting in additional flaking of the edges of the flint subject to processing. The processing aimed at obtaining the appropriate shape. Shouldered points are estimated to be approx. 30 [thirty] thousand years old. They are associated with mammoth hunters and considered to be one of the basic implements used in hunting. The specimen on display originates from the site at Spadzista Street where mammoth remains were also discovered.
It is formed of a piece of Jurassic flint using a percussion flaking technique. It is just 82 millimetres long, 18 millimetres wide, and 6 millimetres thick.
The shouldered point is light brown. It has an irregular asymmetric shape. The top section forms a sharp tip, the middle section is wider, broken. The point narrows before the bottom section, creating the shoulder for which it’s named, so the final section consists of little but the spine. One of its sides was probably flaked more strongly. This bottom section was probably fixed in a handle.
Shouldered points are an exceptionally rare type of stone tool. They were probably used in mammoth hunting. They are found on sites where mammoth remains occur.
This shouldered point is one of the tools discovered at Spadzista Street in Krakow. Scientists of the Jagiellonian University conducted archaeological works on that site in the 1960s.