Levallois technique

A prepared-core method of stone-tool production in which a knapper shapes a stone nucleus before striking flakes of planned form.

Levallois core: A stone nucleus prepared so a blow detaches a flake with a predetermined shape. Its convexities and striking platform guide the planned flake’s detachment.
Lithic technology: The manufacture and use of tools made from stone. Levallois is one distinctive method within prehistoric stone-tool production.
Middle Paleolithic: A prehistoric period associated with Neanderthals and prepared-core stone technologies in much of Eurasia. Levallois methods are especially widespread in Middle Paleolithic assemblages.
Discoidal core reduction: A stone-knapping method that removes flakes around a disc-shaped core without a single prepared target surface. It can resemble Levallois reduction but organizes core surfaces differently.
Levallois flake: A flake detached from a prepared Levallois core, often with a broad, regular outline. It is the intended product of the prepared-core sequence.
Flint knapping: The shaping of flint and other knappable stones by controlled fracture. The technique depends on knapping skills applied to a deliberately prepared core.
Acheulean: A Lower Paleolithic stone-tool tradition known especially for handaxes and cleavers. Levallois methods occur in some late Acheulean contexts, before their wider later use.
Prismatic core: A core shaped to produce long, regular blades through repeated removals along a prepared face. Its repeated blade production differs from Levallois removal of a prepared target flake.
Striking platform: A prepared surface on a stone core where a blow initiates flake removal. The final blow lands on this surface to detach the target flake.
Lithic core: A stone mass from which flakes are removed to make tools. The core is the shaped nucleus from which Levallois flakes are struck.

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