gems, jade, Fischer-Book

In Volume VIII of this archive (1876), pages 239 to 243, I expressed my well-founded reservations against the strict division into a period of flaked tools and a period of polished tools, as established by most archaeologists until the present day.* Today, referencing those earlier arguments in all their details, I would like to discuss from a geognostic standpoint the locations where the earliest inhabitants of Europe and other parts of the world first had the opportunity to produce stone tools. So far, I have only rarely encountered finely crafted spearheads or similar tools made from crystalline quartz varieties, such as rock crystal, and producing such tools would undoubtedly have required an exceptionally skilled hand. Similarly, tools made from granular quartzite are relatively rare.* By far, the most commonly used materials for tool-making—owing to their abundance in nature and ease of shaping—are the dense (cryptocrystalline) varieties of quartz, particularly jasper, flint, and chert (rarely chalcedony).