Journal ArticleDOI
The Analysis of Stone Tool Procurement, Production, and Maintenance
TLDR
A review of the recent literature on stone tool production with an emphasis on raw material procurement, manufacturing techniques, and tool maintenance processes as they relate to adaptive strategies of toolmakers and users can be found in this article.Abstract:
Researchers who analyze stone tools and their production debris have made significant progress in understanding the relationship between stone tools and human organizational strategies. Stone tools are understood to be morphologically dynamic throughout their use-lives; the ever-changing morphology of stone tools is intimately associated with the needs of tool users. It also has become apparent to researchers that interpretations of lithic analysis are more productive when the unique contexts and situations for which lithic artifacts were made, used, modified, and ultimately discarded are considered. This article reviews the recent literature on stone tool production with an emphasis on raw material procurement, manufacturing techniques, and tool maintenance processes as they relate to adaptive strategies of toolmakers and users.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
The fragmented character of Middle Palaeolithic stone tool technology
TL;DR: This paper integrates lithic technology and raw material data from recent studies of Middle Palaeolithic open-air and rock shelter sites in Western Europe and demonstrates that this versatile segmentation of stone artefact handling strategies is a main determinant of the character of the Neandertal archaeological record.
Journal ArticleDOI
Shifts in Neandertal mobility, technology and subsistence strategies in western France
Anne Delagnes,William Rendu +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, a comparative approach to the Middle Paleolithic series from western France shows that the Levallois and laminar flaking systems, the Mousterian of Acheulian Tradition (MTA) shaping system and the Quina and discoidal-denticulate flaking system, vary significantly in terms of duration of reduction sequences, blank versatility and tool maintenance.
Journal ArticleDOI
Major fallacies surrounding stone artifacts and assemblages
Harold L. Dibble,Harold L. Dibble,Harold L. Dibble,Simon Holdaway,Simon Holdaway,Sam C. Lin,David R. Braun,David R. Braun,Matthew Douglass,Radu Iovita,Shannon P. McPherron,Deborah I. Olszewski,Dennis Sandgathe +12 more
TL;DR: The authors argue that many assumptions used by archaeologists to derive behavioral inferences through the definition, conceptualization, and interpretation of both individual stone artifact forms and groups of artifacts identified as assemblages do not fit squarely with what we have learned from both ethnographic sources and analyses of archaeological materials.
Journal ArticleDOI
A geometric morphometrics-based assessment of blade shape differences among Paleoindian projectile point types from western North America
Briggs Buchanan,Mark Collard +1 more
TL;DR: Geometric morphometrics and multivariate statistics were used to compare the shapes of the blades of Clovis, Folsom and Plainview points from the Southern Plains of North America and show that the similarities and differences in blade shape among the types are independent of allometry, raw material quality, and resharpening.
Journal ArticleDOI
A Twenty-First Century Archaeology of Stone Artifacts
Simon Holdaway,Matthew Douglass +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluate a continued interest in the final form of stone artifacts by first considering ethnographic accounts of stone artifact manufacture and use in Australia and then by utilizing the patterns observed in these accounts to investigate assemblage patterning within an Australian archaeological case study.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Willow Smoke and Dogs’ Tails: Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems and Archaeological Site Formation
TL;DR: In this paper, a theory of adaptation is proposed to anticipate both differences in settlement-subsistence strategies and patterning in the archaeological record through a more detailed knowledge of the distribution of environmental variables.
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Organization and Formation Processes: Looking at Curated Technologies
TL;DR: In this article, the authors draw upon ethnographic experiences among the Nunamiut Eskimo for insights into the effects of technological organization on interassemblage variability Varying situationally conditioned strategies of raw material procurement, tool design and manufacture, and disposal are described as clues to site function or "placement" in a subsistence-settlement system.
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Paleolithic Technology and Human Evolution
TL;DR: This work has shown that stone tool technology, robust australopithecines, and the genus Homo appeared almost simultaneously 2.5 million years ago, and once this adaptive threshold was crossed, technological evolution was accompanied by increased brain size, population size, and geographical range.
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Raw-Material Availability and the Organization of Technology
TL;DR: Andrefsky, Jr., William. as mentioned in this paper, et al. 1994 Raw Material Availability and the Organization of Technology. American Antiquity 59:21-35.1].
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Technological Efficiency and Tool Curation
TL;DR: It is argued that the nature and distribution of lithic resources critically affect technological efficiency and two aspects of curation, maintenance and recycling are discussed, asserting that they are responses to raw material shortages.