Lithic Technology: Measures of Production, Use and Curation

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.

Table of Contents 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. Unpacking production, resharpening and hammer type Jennifer Keeling Wilson and Willian 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 Brook Blades; 7. Stone tool perforating 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 M. Prentiss and David S. Clarke; 13. Changing reduction intensity, settlement and subsistence in Wardaman Country, Northern Australia Chris Clarkson; 14. Lithic core reduction techniques: a model for predicting expected diversity Nathan B. Goodale, Ian Kuijt, Shane MacFarlan, Curtis Osterhoudt and Bill Finlayson. Author Biography William Andrefsky, Jr. is professor of anthropology at Washington State University. He is the author of more than 100 articles and books, including Lithics: Macroscopic Approaches to Analysis.

Author Biography

William Andrefsky, Jr. is professor of anthropology at Washington State University. He is the author of more than 100 articles and books, including Lithics: Macroscopic Approaches to Analysis.