Lithics 'Down Under': Australian Perspectives on Lithic Reduction, Use and Classification

Description

This monograph takes a new look at various aspects of stone artefact analysis that reveal important and exciting new information about the past, and in particular Australian perspectives on lithics. The ten papers making up this volume tackle a number of issues that have long been at the heart of archaeology's problematic relationship with stone artefacts, including our understanding of the dynamic nature of past stoneworking practices, the utility of traditional classificatory schemes, and ways to unlock the vast amount of information about the strategic role of lithic technology that resides in stone artefact assemblages. The dominant theme of this monograph is the pursuit of new ways of characterising the effects of manufacturing and susbsistence behaviour on stone artefact assemblages. Front Cover Title Page Copyright Table of Contents List of Contributors 1 Introduction: Casting New Light on Old Stones 2 Measuring Artefact Reduction -An Examination of Kuhn’s Geometric Index of Reduction 3 Tenuous Types: Scraper Reduction Continuums in the Eastern Victoria River Region, Northern Territory 4 Backed and Forth: An Exploration of Variation in Retouched Implement Production on the South Molle Island Quarry, Central Queensland 5 Reduction Continuums and Tool Use 6 Abrupt Terminations and Stone Artefact Reduction Potential 7 Stone Artefact Assemblage Variability in Late Holocene Contexts in Western New South Wales: Burkes Cave, Stud Creek and Fowlers Gap 8 Stone Artefact Reduction, Mobility and Arid8 Zone Settlement Models: A Case Study from Puritjarra Rockshelter, Central Australia 9 Informal Movements: Changing Mobility Patterns at Ngarrabullgan, Cape York Australia 10 The Reduction Thesis and its Discontents: Overview of the Volume