Understanding Chipped Stone Tools

This is a unique and engaging book on prehistoric stone tools. It advocates an experiential approach in which analysts try to understand stone tool designs from the users' perspectives, and employs a universal logic of designing tools to solve practical problems and evaluating various possible solutions. However, to do so it is also necessary to understand how stone can be mechanically modified to serve specific functions. The author enlists a rich array of ethnographic observations and considerable background as a flintknapper to show the basic ways in which stones can be flaked and modified and what these characteristics can reveal about prehistoric problem-solving strategies and design constraints. This is an invaluable primer for anyone contemplating the study of prehistoric stone tools."

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

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

Chipped stone tools from archaeological sites can be a source of social and economic information about the inhabitants. In this volume, author William J. Parry presents his analysis of chipped stone tools found at Early and Middle Formative sites in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Volume 8 of the subseries Prehistory and Human Ecology of the Valley of Oaxaca.

Lithic analysts have been criticized for being atheoretical in their approach, or at least for not contributing to building archaeological theory. This volume redresses that balance. In Stone Tools, renowned lithic analysts employ explicitly theoretical constructs to explore the archaeological record and use the lithic database to establish its points. Chapters discuss curation, design theory, replacement of stone with metal, piece refitting, and projectile point style.

A comprehensive field guide to prehistoric chipped stone tools of South Carolina based on over 350 private artifact collections from across the state. Filled with dozens of full-color photographs, maps and diagrams, this book is a must have resource for both the professional and amateur archaeologist. The book documents almost four decades of the Statewide Collectors Survey, initiated in 1979 by the South Carolina Department of Archives and History and the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. This work is a major contribution to the study of Native American artifacts in particular and understanding of the state's prehistory in general.

Understanding Stone Tools and Archaeological Sites is a valuable volume of investigative archaeology focuses on stone tools, the artifacts produced by these tools, and the revealing debris left behind at sites where they were produced. The majority of study sites discussed are in western North America, including Alberta's own Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a World Heritage Site. Suitable for both the scholar and the interested layperson, provides a comprehensive study in archaeological lithic analysis. This concise, "hands-on" guide to practical exploration at stone tool sites will become required reading for those pursuing studies of any sort in prehistoric lithic artifacts. The inclusion of maps, illustrations, and photographs broadens the reader's understanding of deriving meaning and relevance in the study of stone tool technology.