An artefact is anything which has been made or modified by humans. The term 'stone artefact' includes both the finished implement and the debris which is a by-product of its manufacture.
Stone artefacts are the most common form of archaeological evidence found in Australia.
In areas where the landscape has not been drastically altered by European settlement such artefacts can be found lying on the surface, often in quite large numbers or exposed by erosion, road works, ploughing, etc. Percussion flaking To make stone tools by percussion flaking, the Aboriginal tool-maker first had to select an appropriate raw material. Preference was given to finegrained silica based rocks, such as quartz, quartzite, silcrete and chert. These all have reasonably predictable flaking qualities. Once a suitable piece of rock, known as the core, was selected it was struck by a second piece, the hammerstone, and smaller thin pieces of stone, called flaks, were chipped off.