Driving forces for the weathering and alteration of silica in the regolith: Implications for studies of prehistoric flint tools

Of many potential applications of knowledge about the near-surface alteration of silica in regolith materials and the environmental conditions under which it occurs, our studies can be used as a basis determining the provenance and post-discard history of prehistoric flint tools and artefacts, in part to determine the source of the primary raw material. We suggest that the mineralogical and petrographical characteristics of the weathering rind (cortex) of the flint (specifically the recrystallization, dissolution and deposition of the silica phases, and the spatial arrangement of surfaces that have undergone successive transformations) are related to specific and identifiable weathering environments.