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 evaluate 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 his 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.

Table of Contents:
1 - Perspectives on Lithics Perspectives: Old, New, and From the Bottom Up What Do You Want To Find Out? Experiential and Experimental Archaeology My Background Organization of This Book Exercise Additional Readings 2 - Design Theory Steps in Design Analysis Design Theory in Practice Constraints The Importance of Quantity Prestige Technologies Exercise Additional Readings 3 - Design Theory as Applied to Lithic Analysis End Scrapers: A Specially Designed Tool Type The Problem Step 1: Dehairing and Removing the Epidermis Step 2: Defleshing Step 3: Removing the Inner Membrane Step 4: Stretching and Working the Hide Step 5: Abrading the Hide Design Lessons from Making Buckskin Deconstructing End Scrapers: The Design Factors Material Constraints Task Constraints Size and Kinematic Constraints Skill Constraints Technological Constraints Quantity Size Matters Designing Hide-Scraping Tools Blades and Reduction Strategies Discussion Exercise Additional Readings 4 - Tier 1: Analyzing Stone Tools Expedient, Extemporaneous, and Opportunistic Tool Use The Nuts and Bolts of Analyzing Stone Tools: Tools and Debitage An Artifact or Not an Artifact? Flake Tools: The Six Sides of a Flake Types of Edge Modification Other Sources of Edge Modification Unmodified Tools Summary Exercise Additional Readings 5 - Tier 2: Basic Reduction Strategies and Specialized Types Specialized Tools: Projectile Points Spears or Arrows? Consequences Reduction Strategies Hard Hammer Block Core Reduction Blade Reduction Bipolar Reduction Bifacial Reduction Levallois Reduction Pressure Reduction Summary Exercise Additional Readings 6 - Tier 3: Design Considerations Reliability Maintainability Versatility and Multifunctionality Flexibility Diversity Other Design Considerations Commentary Identifying Tasks and Strategies Types Traditional Typologies Contemporary Typologies Exercise Additional Readings 7 - Changes Raw Materials Geological Nomenclature versus Prehistoric Choices Resharpening Strategies Over Time The Oldawan Acheulian Handaxes and Mousterian Levallois Flakes Upper Paleolithic Blades and Bifaces Mesolithic Microliths Ground Stone Axes Additional Readings 8 - Total Assemblages Profile of the Keatley Creek Site The Lithic Assemblage at Keatley Creek The Block Core Strategy Bifacial Reduction Bipolar Reduction Pressure Reduction Grinding Reduction 9 - Precepts and Prospects Getting Oriented Prospects Research Constraints Additional Reading Sources for Images Glossary