Scraper

A retouched flake tool with a thick working edge; a flake tool that has been sharpened on one edge and left blunt on other edges to allow grasping, probably used to scrape (dress) animal hides. It is called a side scraper (racloir) or end scraper (grattoir) depending on the sharpened edge; side scrapers utilize the long side and end scrapers have the scraping facet on one end. Thumbnail scrapers are very small; some cultures used scrapers as big as a fist. Scrapers were also used in woodworking and in shaping bone or ivory. Other types were snub-nosed round / horseshoe, and thumbnail.

One of the commonest forms of stone tool is a flake with retouch along the edge. This is usually called a side scraper (or racloir). A blade with retouch round the end is usually called an end scraper (or grattoir). Side scrapers are typical of the Middle Palaeolithic, while end scrapers are typical of the later Palaolithic. How Palaeolithic tools were used is generally unknown, but a few side scrapers are known from wear studies to have been used for skin preparation. This is also likely to have been the main use of end scrapers, as they resemble tools used for this purpose by recent hunters.