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.

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

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

Examines the history of mankind during the Neolithic Age, and presents evidence that the Stone Age human was more advanced than science originally thought. Includes figures and photographs.

A detailed overview of the Eastern African stone tools that make up the world's longest archaeological record.

This volume compiles the papers presented at the seventh edition of the Conference on PPN Chipped and Ground Stone Industries of the Fertile Crescent, held in Barcelona from 14 to 17 February 2012. This series of conferences/workshops started nineteen years ago - the first meeting was organised in Berlin in 1993 - and is devoted to the study of the lithic record in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of the Near East and neighbouring regions. The seventh of these conferences was organised by the Institució Milà i Fontanals (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas) and the Prehistory Department (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona). This volume includes a total number of 36 articles, covering a wide range of topics and disciplines related to lithic studies in the Levant over a long chronological time span (from the final stages of the Epipalaeolithic/Natufian to the Halaf period). The publication of the conference proceedings is thus an interesting synthesis of the current state of lithic studies on the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of the Near East, and consolidates this specific series of conferences as a key tool to maintain and stimulate the vitality of high quality research into the Near Eastern lithic record.

At the confluence of the Illinois, the Missouri, and the Mississippi Rivers lies the "American Bottom," a broad floodplain that prehistoric peoples inhabited for millennia. Precisely how did they live? What were their ties to the natural world around them? In this study, based upon some six years of intensive archeological and geological research at Labras Lake in St. Clair County, Illinois, Richard W. Yerkes interprets a wealth of important new data in a stimulating and original fashion. With a fine-tuned control of the data, Yerkes challenges prevailing theories based on simple classifications of stone tools according to shape or on simple models of diffuse and focal economies. He views environment as a dynamic factor in economic and cultural life, rather than as merely a backdrop to it. Using incident light microscopy, he examines wear patterns on stone tools to determine what activities were performed during each period the site was inhabited—the Late Archaic, the Late Woodland, and the Mississippian. As he documents environmental change at Labras Lake, he analyzes plant and animal remains in context to explore diet and seasonal patterns of subsistence and settlement. The result is a more accurate and detailed picture than ever before what prehistoric life on the Mississippi floodplain was like. Yerkes shows how to assess the duration and size of occupations and how to determine where and when true permanent settlements arose. What others call "sedentary encampments" he reveals as sequences of small residental occupations for a narrow range of activities during shorter, seasonal periods. His contribution to the study of the development of sedentism is potentially far-reaching and will interest many North American anthropologists and archeologists.