In lithic reduction, a burin is a special type of lithic flake with a chisel-like edge which prehistoric humans may have used for engraving or for carving wood or bone. Burins exhibit a feature called a "burin spall", in which toolmakers strike a small flake obliquely from the edge of the burin flake in order to form the graving edge. Burin usage is diagnostic of Upper Palaeolithic cultures in Europe, but archaeologists have also identified it in North American cultural assemblages.

In modern usage, burin refers to a steel cutting tool used by engravers.

In the Clavicula Salomonis, a 16th century grimoire, a burin is one of many consecrated instruments.

The word comes from the French burin meaning "chisel".

Archaeological artefact types | Lithics | Mechanical hand tools | Primitive technology | Stone Age

Burin