This volume introduces a methodology, based on a systematic, in-depth study of prehension and hafting traces on experimental stone artifacts. The author proposes a number of distinctive macro- and microscopic wear traits for identifying handheld tools.

Qesem Cave (Israel) acts here as a case study to explore two important topics from the Middle Pleistocene: the practice of recycling old discarded flakes for the production of new objects by means of recycling, and the production of flakes and tools of small dimensions—topics that have not gained sufficient attention from the scientific community.

Quartzite is a particularly frequently used lithology for knapping stone tools throughout all stages of human evolution. Despite this, however, there is a surprising lack of detailed methodological research on the formation and appearance of use-wear on this type of rock. As such, this book fills in a gap in the research, and proposes a new method to analyse use-wear on quartzite, by evaluating the variability of use-wear appearance on different rock varieties. This book is conceived as a handbook for the application of microwear analysis on quartzite, and is addressed to both students and lithic use-wear analysists. The extreme surface irregularities of quartzite, mainly due to its microcrystalline structure and the diverse orientation of quartz crystals surfaces, have always been regarded as a major obstacle when applying use-wear analysis. As shown here, the use of scanning electron microscopy allows this and other obstacles when observing highly reflective surfaces, such as quartzite, to be overcome.

The significance of use-wear studies in archaeological research plays an important role as a proxy to prehistoric techno-cultural reconstruction. The present volume, divided into five thematic sections, includes chapters discussing various different research methods, techniques, chronologies and regions. As such, this volume will be of interest to both archaeologists and anthropologists.

This volume provides the reader with a multifaceted overview of the study of stone tools used by humans in the past. Including case studies from various geographic regions and different continents, and covering a wide range of chronologies, the contributions here are centred on the study of human communities based on a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. A number of essays in this volume focus on tool production and use, and address major paleoanthropological questions related to past human economic and social behaviour. The book also includes detailed and careful studies of human technology during Prehistory.

This volume brings together evidence for the cognitive, social, and technological foundations necessary for the development of hafting, or the addition of handles and shafts to previously hand-held tools, which made the tools not only more efficient, but improved their makers' chances of survival.

Techno-logic & Technology is an ambitious effort to develop a new framework for studying the development of stone tool technology, with the goal of integrating humanity’s earliest and longest-lasting technology into a comprehensive questioning of the interaction between humanity and the material world. Michael Chazan provides a translation of Éric Boëda's authoritative work Techno-logique and Technologie, which draws on the latter's career of research on stone tool assemblages from archaeological sites in Europe, the Middle East, China, and South America, together with a theoretical apparatus influenced by the work of Gilbert Simondon. This book presents a major challenge to all archaeologists studying ancient technology to reconsider how they think about artifacts and how to approach the question of progress through time in human technology. Lithic analysis is a highly empirical field of study that rarely has an impact on issues of broad theoretical interest, and Boëda’s book is a welcome exception. As well as providing contextualising information within the text, the translator Michael Chazan, himself a Paleolithic archaeologist specializing in stone tool technology, includes an interview with the author to help equip the reader to engage with this challenging text. Chiming with the growth of interest in the work of Gilbert Simondon in the English-speaking world, this book is an important resource for Palaeolithic archaeologists and lithic specialists. It will also be of interest to researchers in material culture studies, technology studies, and human evolution.

This book is designed to act as a readily accessible guide to different methods and techniques of use-wear and residue analysis and therefore includes a wide range of different and complementary essential topics: experimental tests, observation and record methods and techniques and the interpretation of a diversity of tool types and worked raw materials. The onset of use-wear studies was marked by the development of theory, method and techniques in order to infer prehistoric tools functionality and, therefore, understand human technological, social and cultural behavior. The last decade of functional studies, use-wear and residue analysis have been aimed at the observation, recording and interpretation of different activities and worked materials found on archaeological tools made on different types of organic and non-organic materials. This international group of contributions will be fundamental for all researchers and students of the discipline.

For more than a century flint daggers have been among the most closely studied and most heavily published later prehistoric lithic tools. It is well established that they are found across Europe and beyond, and that many were widely circulated over many generations. Yet, few researchers have attempted to discuss the entirety of the flint dagger phenomenon. The present volume brings together papers that address questions of the regional variability and socio-technical complexity of flint daggers and their production. It focuses on the typology, chronology, technology, functionality and meaning of flint and other lithic daggers produced primarily in Europe, but also in the Eastern Mediterranean and East Asia, in prehistory. The 14 papers by leading researchers provide a comprehensive overview of the state of knowledge concerning various flint dagger corpora as well as potential avenues for the development of a research agenda across national, regional and disciplinary boundaries. The volume originates from a session held at the 2011 meeting of the European Association of Archaeology but includes additional commissioned contributions.

This book is devoted to flintworking encountered in the so-called cult houses and ritual zones from the Late Bronze Age in southern Scandinavia, where thousands of barrows were built in the period from the Neolithic to the end of the Early Bronze Age