Huge Core “Livre de Beurre”, Neolithic, 4700 years old - 240mm - Grand-Pressigny

Culture: Neolithic

Age: circa 4700 BP

Object: Flat Blade Core “Livre de Beurre”

Material: Flintstone

Origin: Found at a place called La Chatière, town of Abilly near Le Grand-Pressigny (Indre-et-Loire département) - France

Condition: Very Good. No modern damage, no restoration. See  pictures

Last collection: old French collection, the name will be given to the buyer

Dimensions: 240 x 90 x 75 mm

Weight: 2038 g

This typical shape of the Grand-Pressigny area was specially created to make the longest possible blades

The core shows the classical alternate flaking scars along the sides, which prepared the piece for the cutting of the blades: the top face displays one long negative blade mark

Percussion marks visible at the base

It has a very nice patina, beautiful brown and beige color

History of this kind of tool:

In the Neolithic farms and villages of southern Touraine where good quality flint was easily found, everyone could make stone tools to work other materials such as wood, hides and plants. At the end of the Neolithic (-2800 / - 2400 BC), after several generations of flake and blade knappers, craftsmen who had developed a very high level of skills discovered a new method for obtaining even longer blades.

This knapping method, particularly suited to the flint of this region, was called “Livre de Beurre” (pound of butter) by prehistorians, following the Touraine farmers at the end of the 19th century who found these curious objects in their fields. The resemblance of these stones to the 500 gram (1 pound) loaves of butter that the farmers made in wooden molds with crenellated edges inspired this name. These “Livre de Beurre” therefore correspond to the nucleus remaining after the knapping of the large blades.

These exceptionally sized blades, with lengths ranging from over 22 cm to almost 40 cm, were then retouched to be transformed into large knives called daggers.

Such long objects were not essential to meet daily needs, they were in fact prestigious, even ostentatious objects, mainly intended for groups more or less distant from the region of production. This is how these objects were distributed in many French regions, but also as far as western Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands, more than 900 km from Touraine!

Production having largely exceeded local needs, it was therefore a real craft, linked to exchange networks organized across Western Europe.

The high level of skills necessary for the manufacture of these large blades allows it to be described as the first artistic craft in Touraine.

Divestment from my private collection

Bought legally from old collections or during public auctions

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