Working in Archaeology is a connection to the past.

One of the greatest joys of Archaeology is unearthing an artifact that may not have been touched for a thousand years or more. You hold history in your hand. At that moment you have an indelible bond with the person who last touched it. Was the piece flaked off as the flintknapping plied their craft; or is it a tool worn to a nub and tossed away? We can all read about the past, but working as an Archaeologist you can experience it.

Above are some of the pieces I've found: 

Back Row: All the pieces except for the big one on the right are flakes. Those are the pieces that break off when the tools or weapons are being formed. The big one is a bi-facial. That’s a piece that has been worked on both sides. The craftsman will hone or smooth a piece to finish their work. We don’t know if this piece was finished or broke while being formed and discarded. 

Second Row: This is a 450 million-year-old Crinoid fossil that had been carefully chiseled out of a probable limestone formation and made into a necklace. 

First Row: The piece on the left was a spearhead. We can determine this by the size of the piece. The one in the middle is an almost formed arrowhead. As it was being worked a small part flaked off and the piece was tossed away. The one on the far right is a scrapper. In fact, it resembles a small wood plane. The type of tool used by woodworkers to extract small slices of wood. This piece would have been used to clean the hides of any fat or muscle still attached to the hide.