The Lives Of Stone Tools

"This book offers critical insights into lithic technology and cultural practices concerning stone tools"--Provided by publisher.

In The Life-Giving Stone, Michael Searcy provides a thought-provoking ethnoarchaeological account of metate and mano manufacture, marketing, and use among Guatemalan Maya for whom these stone implements are still essential equipment in everyday life and diet. Although many archaeologists have regarded these artifacts simply as common everyday tools and therefore unremarkable, Searcy’s methodology reveals how, for the ancient Maya, the manufacture and use of grinding stones significantly impacted their physical and economic welfare. In tracing the life cycle of these tools from production to discard for the modern Maya, Searcy discovers rich customs and traditions that indicate how metates and manos have continued to sustain life—not just literally, in terms of food, but also in terms of culture. His research is based on two years of fieldwork among three Mayan groups, in which he documented behaviors associated with these tools during their procurement, production, acquisition, use, discard, and re-use. Searcy’s investigation documents traditional practices that are rapidly being lost or dramatically modified. In few instances will it be possible in the future to observe metates and manos as central elements in household provisioning or follow their path from hand-manufacture to market distribution and to intergenerational transmission. In this careful inquiry into the cultural significance of a simple tool, Searcy’s ethnographic observations are guided both by an interest in how grinding stone traditions have persisted and how they are changing today, and by the goal of enhancing the archaeological interpretation of these stones, which were so fundamental to pre-Hispanic agriculturalists with corn-based cuisines.

Stone tools are the most durable and, in some cases, the only category of material evidence that students of prehistory have at their disposal. Exploring the changing character and context of stone tools in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain, Mark Edmonds examines the varied ways in which these artefacts were caught up in the fabric of past social life. Key themes include:stone tool procurement and production * the nature of technological traditions * stone tools and social identity * the nature of exchange and the significance of depositional practices. As well as contributing to current debate about the interpretation of material culture, Dr. Edmonds uses the evidence of stone tools to reconsider some of the major horizons of change in later British prehistory.From the production of tools at spectacularly located quarries to their ceremonial burial or destruction at ritual monuments, this well-illustrated study demonstrates that our understanding of these varied and sometimes enigmatic artefacts requires a concern with their social, as well as their practical dimensions.

Find out everything that you need to know about the Stone Age: the life of a hunter and gatherer, what clothes people wore, the caves they lived in, as well as their arts and crafts creations. DK Reader Life in the Stone Age explores topics including mammoths, cave paintings, shamans, and shelters. Covering the old, middle, and new Stone Age eras of Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic, the two and a half million year period is explained and provides young readers with everything they would need to know about life in the Stone Age in DK's informative and easy to read style. DK's innovative range of levelled readers combines a highly visual approach with non-fiction narratives that children will love reading. DK Reader Life in the Stone Age is a Level 2 reader, Beginning to Read, offering a delightful narrative for young children to encourage an interest in and desire to read. Simple sentences are used with an emphasis on frequently used words with strong visual clues and labels introducing and reinforcing vocabulary. Additional information spreads feature extra stone age facts for kids that develop the topic further. There's also a fun quiz to develop reading comprehension.

Lithic analysts have been criticised for being atheoretical in their approach, or at least for not contributing to the development of archaeological theory. Stone Tools' addresses this issue by presenting contributions that employ explicitly theoretical constructs to interpret the archaeological record.

This collection aims to refocus archaeological and anthropological interest in technology.

This book surveys the archaeological record for stone tools from the earliest times to 6,500 years ago in the Near East.

Stone tools are the most durable and common type of archaeological remain and one of the most important sources of information about behaviors of early hominins. Stone Tools and the Evolution of Human Cognition develops methods for examining questions of cognition, demonstrating the progression of mental capabilities from early hominins to modern humans through the archaeological record. Dating as far back as 2.5-2.7 million years ago, stone tools were used in cutting up animals, woodworking, and preparing vegetable matter. Today, lithic remains give archaeologists insight into the forethought, planning, and enhanced working memory of our early ancestors. Contributors focus on multiple ways in which archaeologists can investigate the relationship between tools and the evolving human mind-including joint attention, pattern recognition, memory usage, and the emergence of language. Offering a wide range of approaches and diversity of place and time, the chapters address issues such as skill, social learning, technique, language, and cognition based on lithic technology. Stone Tools and the Evolution of Human Cognition will be of interest to Paleolithic archaeologists and paleoanthropologists interested in stone tool technology and cognitive evolution.