Lithic Technology: Measures of Production, Use and Curation

Cambridge University Press, 9/1/2008
EAN 9780521888271, ISBN10: 0521888271

Hardcover, 360 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm
Language: English

The life history of stone tools is intimately linked to tool production, use and maintenance. These are important processes in the organization of lithic technology, or the manner in which lithic technology is embedded within human organizational strategies of land use and subsistence practices. This volume brings together essays that measure the life history of stone tools relative to retouch values, raw material constraints and evolutionary processes. Collectively, they explore the association of technological organization with facets of tool form such as reduction sequences, tool production effort, artifact curation processes and retouch measurement. Data sets cover a broad geographic and temporal span, including examples from France during the Paleolithic, the Near East during the Neolithic, and other regions such as Mongolia, Australia, and Italy. North American examples are derived from Paleoindian times to historic period aboriginal populations throughout the United States and Canada.

Part I. Introduction, Background and Review
1. An introduction to stone tool life history and technological organization William Andrefsky, Jr
2. Lithic reduction, its measurement, and implications
comments on the volume Michael J. Shott and Margaret C. Nelson
Part II. Production, Reduction and Retouch
3. Comparing and synthesizing unifacial stone tool reduction indices Metin I. Eren and Mary E. Prendergast
4. Exploring retouch on bifaces
unpacking production, resharpening, and hammer type Jennifer Wilson and William Andrefsky, Jr
5. The construction of morphological diversity
a study of Mousterian implement retouching at Combe Grenal Peter Hiscock and Chris Clarkson
6. Reduction and retouch as independent measures of intensity Brooke Blades
7. Perforation with stone tools and retouch intensity
a Neolithic case study Colin Patrick Quinn, William Andrefsky, Jr, Ian Kuijt and Bill Finlayson
8. Exploring the dart and arrow dilemma
retouch indices as functional determinants Cheryl Harper and William Andrefsky, Jr
Part III. New Perspectives on Lithic Raw Material and Technology
9. Projectile point provisioning strategies and human land use William Andrefsky, Jr
10. The role of lithic raw material availability and quality in determining tool kit size, tool function, and degree of retouch
a case study from Skink Rockshelter (46NI445), West Virginia Douglas H. MacDonald
11. Raw material and retouched flakes Andrew P. Bradbury, Philip J. Carr and D. Randall Cooper
Part IV. Evolutionary Approaches to Lithic Technologies
12. Lithic technological organization in an evolutionary framework
examples from North America's Pacific Northwest region Anna Marie Prentiss and David S. Clarke
13. Changing reduction intensity, settlement, and subsistence in Wardaman Country, Northern Australia Chris Clarkson
14. Lithic core reduction techniques
modeling expected diversity Nathan B. Goodale, Ian Kuijt, Shane J. Macfarlan, Curtis Osterhoudt and Bill Finlayson.