I love a good pun. An exhausted core is a piece of rock that has had so many flakes knocked off of it during the process of flint knapping, that it can’t be used for anything else. So, it gets thrown out. And falls asleep (har har).
Tag: core
Lithic Series, Part 1: How Flakes Are Made
When a hammerstone and a core fall in love . . .Flint Knapping is the process of using a hammerstone (a small rock/cobble) and hitting it against a type of rock (i.e. a core), like obsidian or chert, that breaks into nice small pieces (i.e. flakes) that can be further worked into tools like scrapers, spear points, projectile points, knives, etc.
Trowel Tales 