How were Neolithic stone tools ground and polished?

During the Neolithic Period, the process of creating ground and polished stone tools—such as celts, chisels, and gouges—involved a multi-step refinement technique.1

First, the stone was chipped into a rough shape using traditional flaking methods. To refine the tool, the surface or the working edge was rubbed against a coarse abrasive rock to remove the original chip scars. Finally, the tool underwent a polishing stage, which consisted of a final grinding process using a fine abrasive.1

In some cases, a "pecking" or crumbling method was also used to level ridges between flake scars before the grinding and polishing stages began. This involved bruising the rock with a hard hammerstone until the struck points crumbled into powder. These techniques resulted in tools with superior strength and more even, shock-resistant cutting edges compared to earlier flaked implements.1