A distinctive method of stone tool-making in which flakes are removed by percussion from a preshaped core, with little other modification. This prepared-core knapping technique allows the removal of large flakes of predetermined size and shape. The face of the core is trimmed to shape in order to control the form and size of the intended flake. Characteristically the preparatory flaking is directed from the periphery of the core towards the center. The residual core is shaped rather like a tortoise, with one face plane and the other domed, while the flake shows the scars of the preparatory work on one face and is plane on the other. It is named for Levallois-Perret, a suburb of Paris, where such artifacts were first discovered. The Levallois technique was known from the Acheulian period and employed by certain late Lower Palaeolithic handax makers, and throughout the Middle Palaeolithic by some Mousterian communities. It lasted into the Upper Palaeolithic of the Levant, and in the Epi-Levalloisian industries of Egypt.