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Ground Stone Analysis
Archaeologists define stone artifacts that are altered by or used to alter other items through abrasion, pecking, or polishing as “ground stone.” This includes mortars and pestles, abraders, polishers stones, and hammerstones, and artifacts shaped by abrasion or pecking, such as axes, pipes, figurines, ornaments, and architectural pieces.
The first edition of Ground Stone Analysis sparked interest around the world. In the decade following its publication, there have been many advances in scientific technology and developments in ethnographic and experimental research. The second edition incorporates these advances, including examples of international research that have utilized a technological approach to ground stone analysis. This study presents a flexible yet structured method for analyzing and classifying stone artifacts. These techniques record important attributes based on design, manufacturing, and use and are applicable to any collection in the world.
The methods presented guide quantitative and qualitative assessments of artifacts and assemblages. Recording forms and instructions for completing them will be available on the University of Utah Press’s open access portal at www.UofUpress.com. Ground Stone Analysis is an important, useful reference for any archaeological field worker or student who encounters ground stone artifacts and is interested in learning more about the people who used them.
eBook
Fracture and life
This book is an interdisciplinary review of the effect of fracture on life, following the development of the understanding of fracture written from a historical perspective. After a short introduction to fracture, the first section of the book covers the effects of fracture on the evolution of the Earth, plants and animals, and man. The second section of the book covers the largely empirical control of fracture from ancient times to the end of the nineteenth century. The final section reviews the development of fracture theory as a discipline and its application during the twentieth century through to the present time.
Book
Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Near East
Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Near East: A Guide surveys the lithic record for the East Mediterranean Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan, and adjacent territories) from the earliest times to 6,500 years ago. It is intended both as an introduction to this lithic evidence for students and as a resource for researchers working with Paleolithic and Neolithic stone tool evidence. Written by a lithic analyst and professional flintknapper, this book systematically examines variation in technology, typology, and industries for the Lower, Middle, and Upper Paleolithic; the Epipaleolithic; and Neolithic periods in the Near East. It is extensively illustrated with drawings of stone tools. In addition to surveying the lithic evidence, the book also considers ways in which archaeological treatment of this evidence could be changed to make it more relevant to major issues in human origins research. A final chapter shows how change in stone tool designs points to increasing human dependence on stone tools across the long sweep of Stone Age prehistory.
eBook
Caciques and Cemi Idols
Takes a close look at the relationship between humans and
other (non-human) beings that are imbued with cemí power,
specifically within the Taíno inter-island cultural sphere
of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola Cemís are both
portable artifacts and embodiments of persons or spirit, which
the Taínos and other natives of the Greater Antilles (ca. AD
1000-1550) regarded as numinous beings with supernatural or magic
powers. This volume takes a close look at the relationship
between humans and other (non-human) beings that are imbued with
cemí power, specifically within the Taíno inter-island
cultural sphere encompassing Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. The
relationships address the important questions of identity and
personhood of the cemí icons and their human
“owners” and the implications of cemí
gift-giving and gift-taking that sustains a complex web of
relationships between caciques (chiefs) of Puerto Rico and
Hispaniola. Oliver provides a careful analysis of the four major
forms of cemís—three-pointed stones, large stone
heads, stone collars, and elbow stones—as well as face
masks, which provide an interesting contrast to the stone heads.
He finds evidence for his interpretation of human and cemí
interactions from a critical review of 16th-century Spanish
ethnohistoric documents, especially the Relación Acerca de
las Antigüedades de los Indios written by Friar Ramón
Pané in 1497–1498 under orders from Christopher
Columbus. Buttressed by examples of native resistance and
syncretism, the volume discusses the iconoclastic conflicts and
the relationship between the icons and the human beings. Focusing
on this and on the various contexts in which the relationships
were enacted, Oliver reveals how the cemís were central to
the exercise of native political power. Such cemís were
considered a direct threat to the hegemony of the Spanish
conquerors, as these potent objects were seen as allies in the
native resistance to the onslaught of Christendom with its icons
of saints and virgins.
eBook
Neandertal Lithic Industries at La Quina
Although Neandertals lived in Europe and western Asia for more than 200,000 years, we know surprisingly little about them or about their everyday lives. Evidence of their behavior is largely derived from the surviving pieces of chipped stone and animal bone that resulted from their activities. One of the largest concentrations of stone and bone artifacts left by Neandertals was at the famous archaeological site of La Quina in southwestern France.This study of the significance of changes through time revealed by an analysis of the chipped stone at La Quina reports on the excavations of the Cooperative American-French Excavation Project from 1985 to 1994. It moves beyond the largely descriptive and subjective approaches that have traditionally been applied to this kind of evidence and applies several important quantitative analytical techniques. These new approaches incorporate the history of previous excavations at the site, the results of the work of the Cooperative Project, and the most recent scientific understanding of relevant climatic changes.This is a major contribution to our understanding of Neandertal behavior and industry. It adds new dimensions and perspectives based on innovative techniques of analysis. The analytic methods applied to lithic artifacts that form the heart of the book are the product of considerations about how to best interpret a sequence of multiple contextual samples. The author concludes the book with an extraordinarily useful chapter that places his findings into the larger context of our contemporary knowledge of Neandertal life in the region.The book comes with a compact disc, which includes coded observations used in the analysis in as many as 47 data fields for the more than 11,500 artifacts that will allow professionals and students to further explore the collection of lithic artifacts.
eBook
In the Eastern Fluted Point Tradition
Eastern North America has one of the largest inventories of Paleoindian sites anywhere in the Americas. Despite this rich record of early human settlement during the late Pleistocene, there are few widely published reports or summaries of Paleoindian research in the region. The contributors to this volume present more than four decades of Early Paleoindian research in eastern North America, including previously unpublished site reports and updates on recent research. Their work helps create a more cohesive picture of the early human occupation of North America.
This data-rich volume provides specific information on artifacts and basic site descriptions which will allow for more thorough comparisons of eastern fluted point sites. Divided into four sections—chronology and environment, reinvestigations of classic sites, new sites and perspectives, and synthesis and conclusions—the volume will encourage further consideration of the sites included and their role in shaping our understanding of huntergatherer lifeways during the late Pleistocene. In the Eastern Fluted Point Tradition is a must read for scholars of Paleoindian archaeology and those generally interested in the prehistory of North America.
eBook