Chatelperron Point
Hunting knife and projectile point
Châtelperronian
44 000 and 42 000 years
…blade retouched on one edge to form a crescent shape…The base tends to form a wide stem.
H. Breuil, Les Cottés. Une grotte du vieil âge du Renne, à Saint-Pierre-de-Maillé (Vienne). R.E.A.P. 1906.
Commentary :
Chatelperron points are made on small flint blades with one edge curved by light retouch.
Some pieces exhibit impact traces compatible with their use as a spear point. However, traces preserved on the sharp edge, and the modification of the base indicate they were more often used as hafted knives.
Chatelperron points appear during the transitional phase, between 44 000 and 42 000 years ago. The last tools made by Neanderthals thus coexist with the first stone blades that accompany the arrival of Homo sapiens in Western Europe.
In this transitional world that mark the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic, Chatelperron points announce a new line of hunting weapons that is made possible by the development of flint blade production.