Page "Microlith" Paragraph 15

Backed edge blades have one of the edges, generally a side one, rounded or chamfered by abrupt retouching.

There are fewer types of these blades, and may be divided into those where the entire edge is rounded and those where only a part is rounded, or even straight.

They are fundamental in the blade-forming processes, and from them, innumerable other types were developed.

Dufour bladelets are up to three centimeters in length, finely shaped with a curved profile whose retouches are semi-abrupt and which characterize a particular phase of the Aurignacian period.

Solutrean backed edge blades display pronounced and abrupt retouching, so that they are long and narrow and, although rare, characterize certain phases of the Solutrean period.

Ouchtata bladelets are similar to the others, except that the retouched back is not uniform but irregular ; this type of microlith characterizes certain periods of the Epipaleolithic saharans.

The Ibero-Maurusian and the Montbani bladelet, with a partial and irregular lateral retouching, is characteristic of the Italian Tardenoisian.