Microburin

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title: "Microburin" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["lithics", "types-of-archaeological-artefact"] description: "Waste product from manufacture of lithic tools" topic_path: "philosophy" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microburin" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Waste product from manufacture of lithic tools ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Microburin.png" caption="Microburin}}"] ::

A microburin is a characteristic waste product from manufacture of lithic tools — sometimes confused with an authentic burin — which is characteristic of the Mesolithic, but which has been recorded from the end of the Upper Paleolithic until the Chalcolithic.{{cite book | author = Brézillon, Michel | title = La denomination des objets de Pierre taillée | year = 1971 | publisher = CNRS |location=Paris | id = IVe supplément à «Callia Préhitoire» | author = Breuil, Henri | title = Note sur la communication de E. Cartailhac: observations sur l'hiatus et le néolithique | year = 1921 | journal = L'Anthropologie | volume = 31 | pages=349–354 | author = Breuil, H. y Zbyszewski, G. | title = Revisión des industries mésolithiques de Muge et de magos | year = 1947 | journal = Communicaçoes dos Serviços Geológicos de Portugal | volume = 28 | pages=149–196

A microburin is a fragment of a lithic flake, or more precisely, of a lithic blade, that shows on its upper face the beginnings of a notch terminating in an oblique flection (whose surface can only be seen from the lower side) that ends in a very acute trihedral apex. It was thought that microburins were exclusively a class of functional microliths, but knapping experiments, along with the refitting of contiguous pieces, have demonstrated that they are a characteristic waste product of an advanced lithic reduction process known as microburin technique - or more correctly, microburin blow technique, following a study of thousands of microburins originating from a variety of Saharan sites. Jacques Tixier noted that none of the examples studied showed unambiguous traces of intentional use, which also validates observation of lack of use wear from analysis of European pieces.{{cite journal | author = Tixier, Jacques | title = Typologie de l'Epipaléolithique du Maghreb | year = 1963 | journal = Mémories du Centre de Recherches Anthropologiques, Préhistoriques et Ethnographiques | volume = 2 | page=42 Examples found in Europe can be seen on this page : https://web.archive.org/web/20090131231751/http://archeobase.be/page_microburins_meso.html, which are associated with Mesolithic hunters of Wallonia (Belgium) (approximately 9,000 BP).

There is also a particular type of microburin named after Krukowski that is from a carving accident and not a waste byproduct.

Notes

References

1. Krukowski, Stefan (1914) - "Un nouveau rebut du microlithique". Extrait des ''Comptes Rendus de la Société Scientifique de Varsovie''

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