Graduate Program in Balkan and Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology

Practical lab course, 30 hours, 3 credits

 

This course deals with the documentation and interpretation of prehistoric lithic artifacts. Lithics were produced and used in large quantities during prehistory in a number of everyday and special activities. Stone and obsidian implements are generally the only trace of human daily practices from which we infer an image of man's behavior in his work, gesture and space organization as well as in his social relations and ideology.

 

Lithics are the oldest and the longest used tools in human history. Aside from their practical use, lithic tools are very often cultural and symbolic markers, as they convey useful information regarding cultural choices and communication.

 

This course offers introductory lectures on the development of the technology and typology of lithic artefacts, reviews different analytical approaches, statistical and graphical methods and hands-on laboratory exercises. The course will cover additional information concerning the geological, functional and spatial analyses of stone artefacts.

 

Students will practice how to draw, classify, and analyze real prehistoric lithic artifacts.

 

	Topic	Hours
1	Introduction to the global development of lithic artefacts.	2
2	Introduction to archaeological approaches to lithic artefacts	2
3	Defining flint and stone raw materials and understanding he context of raw material sources.	2
4	Chaîne opératoire of lithic artefacts	2
5	Analysis of lithic debitage	4
6	Classification of retouched tools	2
7	Experimental archaeology and functional analysis of stone tools.	4
8	Refitting of lithic artefacts	2
9	Statistical analysis of lithic assemblages	4
10	Graphic documentation of lithic artefacts	4

 

 
 

Essential readings:

 

Addington, L.R. 1986. Lithic Illustration. Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press.

 

Andrefsky, Jr., W. 1998. Lithics: Macroscopic Approaches to Analysis. (ch. 2. Basics of stone tool production; ch.5 Flake debitage attributes). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology.

 

Inizan, M.-L., Roche, H. and Tixier, J. 1992. Technology and Terminology of Knapped Stone. Meudon: CREP.

 

Luedtke, B.E., 1992. An Archaeologist´s Guide to Chart and Flint. University of California, California.

 

Pelegrin, J., 1990. Prehistoric Lithic Technology: Some Aspects of Research. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 9, 116-125.

 

Torre, I.de la., 2011. The origins of stone tool technology in Africa: a historical perspective. Phil. Trans. of Royal Society B 366, 1028-1037.

 

Whittaker, J.C. 1994. Flintknapping: Making and Understanding Stone tools. Austin University of Texas Press.

 

Van Gijn, A.L. 2014. Science and interpretation in microwear studies. Journal of Archaeological Science 48, 166-169.