Papers from Session XXXIV-6 of the XVIII UISPP World Congress 2018 were divided into two parts, the first dealing with lithic technology, use-wear analyses and the relation between the decline of stone and the development of metallurgy while the second focused on stone tools used for metallurgy. This publication combines these two parts.
Session XXXIV-6 of the XVIII UISPP World Congress (4-9 June 2018, Paris, France): 'Stone in Metal Ages' was divided in two parts. The first, 'Late stone talks: Lithic industries in Metal Ages', was concerned with knapping. The papers dealt with lithic technology, use-wear analyses and the relation between the decline of stone and the development of metallurgy. The second, 'Let there be rock and metal: l'outillage en pierre des métallurgistes préhistoriques de la mine à l'atelier', was designed for papers focussing on stone tools used for metallurgy. This publication combines these two parts. Despite the fact that metal took the place of stone in many spheres, the analysis of lithic products created during the Metal Ages has seen progressive development. Objects and tools made of flint, chert and other stone materials remain important components of the archaeological record, and their study has offered new perspectives on ancient societies. Not only have many aspects of the everyday life of ancient people been better understood, but the socioeconomic and cultural systems associated with the production, circulation and use of stone tools have offered new information not available from other realms of material culture.
Africa has the longest and arguably the most diverse archaeological record of any of the continents. It is where the human lineage first evolved and from where Homo sapiens spread across the rest of the world. Later, it witnessed novel experiments in food-production and unique trajectories to urbanism and the organisation of large communities that were not always structured along strictly hierarchical lines. Millennia of engagement with societies in other parts of the world confirm Africa's active participation in the construction of the modern world, while the richness of its history, ethnography, and linguistics provide unusually powerful opportunities for constructing interdisciplinary narratives of Africa's past. This Handbook provides a comprehensive and up-to-date synthesis of African archaeology, covering the entirety of the continent's past from the beginnings of human evolution to the archaeological legacy of European colonialism. As well as covering almost all periods and regions of the continent, it includes a mixture of key methodological and theoretical issues and debates, and situates the subject's contemporary practice within the discipline's history and the infrastructural challenges now facing its practitioners. Bringing together essays on all these themes from over seventy contributors, many of them living and working in Africa, it offers a highly accessible, contemporary account of the subject for use by scholars and students of not only archaeology, but also history, anthropology, and other disciplines.
Not everyone bought into the Bronze Age right away, and Rosen describes and classifies the stone tools that continued to be made and used in the Middle East for the next two thousand years. He considers subtypes, function, distribution, chronology, the organization of production, styles, the relationship between lithic and metal technology, and other aspects. Over 100 drawings and maps provide archaeologists with a guide to identifying finds. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
A lift-the-flap book packed with information about life from the Stone Age to the start of farming, early metal working and the Iron Age. Flaps to lift on every page reveal why prehistoric people made cave paintings, how they made their tools and where they lived. A fun and informative first look at a key UK curriculum topic.
Eight papers, ranging from the Chalcolithic in Northwest Africa and Iberia to the Iron Age in Central Europe, shed light on issues as diverse as the principles of chronology building, the role of alleged ‘defensive’ enclosures, pottery studies, use-wear analysis of Iron Age weaponry and the Hallstatt/La Tène transition in the eastern Alps.
Stone tools are the most durable and, in some cases, the only category of material evidence that students of prehistory have at their disposal. Exploring the changing character and context of stone tools in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain, Mark Edmonds examines the varied ways in which these artefacts were caught up in the fabric of past social life. Key themes include:stone tool procurement and production * the nature of technological traditions * stone tools and social identity * the nature of exchange and the significance of depositional practices. As well as contributing to current debate about the interpretation of material culture, Dr. Edmonds uses the evidence of stone tools to reconsider some of the major horizons of change in later British prehistory.From the production of tools at spectacularly located quarries to their ceremonial burial or destruction at ritual monuments, this well-illustrated study demonstrates that our understanding of these varied and sometimes enigmatic artefacts requires a concern with their social, as well as their practical dimensions.
Demonstrates the way in which the discovery, application, and adaptation of materials has shaped the course of human history and the routines of our daily existence.
Studies of seals and sealing practices have traditionally investigated aspects of social, political, economic, and ideological systems in ancient societies throughout the Old World. Previously, scholarship has focused on description and documentation, chronology and dynastic histories, administrative function, iconography, and style. More recent studies have emphasized context, production and use, and increasingly, identity, gender, and the social lives of seals, their users, and the artisans who produced them. Using several methodological and theoretical perspectives, this volume presents up-to-date research on seals that is comparative in scope and focus. The cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approach advances our understanding of the significance of an important class of material culture of the ancient world. The volume will serve as an essential resource for scholars, students, and others interested in glyptic studies, seal production and use, and sealing practices in the Ancient Near East, Egypt, Ancient South Asia and the Aegean during the 4th-2nd Millennia BCE.
