stone working

Reconstructing human behavioural complexity from stone tools is a primary concern for the Palaeolithic archaeologist. Two nested challenges exist in this reconstruction. Firstly, inferring the technical processes and bodies of knowledge, which combine with tools to make ‘technology’. Secondly, human technology is uniquely combinatorial, with stone tools possibly part of a more complex tool. The organic elements of such a tool, such as handles and bindings are, however, not preserved. The emergence of combinatorial technology is poorly understood, with a focus on stone points as armatures, characteristic of post-Acheulean periods leading to limited consideration of it within the Acheulean. Using experimental archaeology, here we demonstrate that ...

In her book, Celtiform Pendants of Pre-Columbian Costa Rica: Production, distribution, and experimental replication, Waka Kuboyama-Haraikawa seeks to highlight lapidary technologies in Costa Rica by examining the social application and production of celtiform pendants. Haraikawa is a PhD research fellow for the Center for Northeast Asian Studies...

Scarabs are beetle-shaped seals originating in Egypt during the third millennium BC. They were first imported into the southern Levant during the early second millennium BC (Middle Bronze Age I), leading to a flourishing of local production in the following centuries...

The analysis of archaeological works of art involves their formal, thematic and interpretative description. The importance of these stages rests in their potential to reveal the biography of an artefact. Research methods investigating the production technology behind an object are a valuable factor extending the field of interpretation of a given object. Each finished work is the result of a creative process...

11th EAC Trento 2019
***Experimental archaeology and use-wear analysis are methods used together to understand aspects of an object’s life, such as manufacture and use. This paper demonstrates the benefits of analysing use-wear through experiments. It presents the results of experiments which were carried out to test the use of battle-axes and axe-hammers...

11th EAC Trento 2019
***Apart from human-made retouch, stone tools can also exhibit traces of damage caused by several post depositional processes, one of which is trampling. Edge damage provoked by trampling, be it of animal or human origin, is sometimes interpreted as human-made retouch ...

This paper investigates the creation, utilisation, and destruction of engraved Magdalenian plaquettes through the application of actualistic experimental replication. Archaeological evidence suggests that there is a relationship between plaquettes and hearth structures, as well as engraved depictions and the destruction of the plaquettes through heating. However, this relationship between fire and plaquettes...

11th EAC Trento 2019
***Both knapped and polished lithic industries have traditionally been given great regard within the archaeological studies of northwestern Iberian Peninsula, mostly focusing on their typologies and the materials used. However, this has not been the case with other stone objects, such as rolling stones, that tend to appear in...

OpenArch Dialogue with Skills Issue
***This article is derived from a presentation made by the senior author at the OpenArch Conference "Working with stones in European Pre- and Proto-history in theory and in practice" organised by the Archaeological-Ecological Centre Albersdorf (DE), 23-27 September, 2013.

OpenArch Dialogue with Skills Issue
***Excavations of several Early Neolithic wells with excellent preservation of the wooden lining in the past years have made clear that Stone Age woodworking already attained a very high level of perfection. This poses the question how it was possible to execute this type of work with the means available at that time...