The Helwan Retouch was a bifacial microlithic flint-tool fabrication technology characteristic of the Early Natufian culture (12,500 BP - 11,000 BP). The decline of the Helwan Retouch was largely replaced by the "backing" technique and coincided with the emergence of microburin

Microburin

A microburin is a characteristic waste product from manufacture of lithic tools, sometimes confused with an authentic burin, which is characteristic of the Mesolithic, but which has been recorded from the end of the Upper Paleolithic until the Calcolithic...

methods, which involved snapping bladelets on an anvil. Natufian lithic technology throughout the usage of the Helwan Retouch was dominated by lunate-shaped lithics, such as picks and axes and especially sickles (which were predominantly—at least 80% of the time—used for harvesting wild cereals).