Patina (stone)

The chemical alteration of a flint or chert surface over millennia — a white, cream or blue rind on flint, a glossy sheen on chert — that a fresh break cuts through. Even patina across every scar says the flaking is old; a patina that stops at some scars says they are new.

Sources

Andrefsky, W. (2005). Lithics: Macroscopic Approaches to Analysis, 2nd ed. Cambridge
Whittaker, J. C. (1994). Flintknapping: Making and Understanding Stone Tools. Texas

Cite this article

Stratum Strata. "Patina (stone)" (Glossary). Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-16. https://stratum.black/strata/glossary/patina-stone. Accessed 2026-09-21.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-patina-stone,
  title        = {Patina (stone)},
  author       = {{Stratum Strata}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/strata/glossary/patina-stone}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Glossary article, Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-16; sources: stratum. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
}

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