‘Didn’t this man ... when he picked up a stone to give it a shape useful to his needs ... open the way for all sculptors and architects to come?’

- Jacques Boucher de Perthes, Celtic and Antediluvian Antiquities, Vol. 1 (1847)

Hammer stones were carved loosely in the round from hard and heavy rocks, before their surface was ‘pecked’ to create a myriad of undulations. This may have been intended to increase the friction the stone could generate when it was used as a grinding stone. However, it is believed that the main purpose of a hammer stone was to make the basic shape of a flint implement, before its edges were more delicately ‘knapped’ with smaller flints. Stones of this type are believed to have been used from the Ice Age until well into the Iron Age. Various examples exist in private collections, such as that of Lord MacAlpine and also various museums across the world.