PL
The article is a reflection on the research on the neolithic flint working ongoing in Polish archaeology for over 40 years. Accepting year 1971 as a turning point for the development of a new specialisation, an attempt has been made in the article to assess the impact of the assumptions of the New Archaeology, but also other paradigms, on the study of neolithic flint artefacts. The evaluation was based on the conclusions resulting from, among others, a textual analysis, for the purpose of this article understood as a kind of source of knowledge about more or less consciously accepted theoretical assumptions in studies on flint working, published by various authors, in methods of classifying data in particular, and their position in the process of describing/explaining/interpreting past reality.