The Chemical Composition of Some Archaeologically Significant Flint from Denmark and Sweden

Flint was the most widely employed raw material for artifact manufacture in Denmark and Sweden during the Stone Age, and it continued to be used during subsequent periods. Prehistoric flint mining and lithic manufacturing studies in these countries have attracted considerable attention, but there have been no recent attempts to chemically characterize the geologic source materials. This paper builds on a pilot study (Hughes et al. 2010) and uses energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDAX) analysis to determine quantitative composition estimates for nine major, minor and certain trace elements in seven archaeologically significant flint sources in Denmark and Sweden, along with new data on a number of other sources of prehistoric significance. These data provide a geochemical foundation for ongoing research devoted to determining contrasts and continuities in the time and space utilization of flint sources in Scandinavian prehistory.