George H. Odell

Stone Tool Research at the End of the Millennium: Classification, Function, and Behavior

This is the second of the two papers that review the literature of archaeological lithic analysis over the last decade. This paper concentrates on aspects of stone tool research that are not directly related to the production or procurement of the tools themselves. It is divided into classification, functional analyses, behavioral processes, and approaches to the subject currently popular among analysts. As with the previous paper, an attempt has been made to be as comprehensive as is reasonable, though availability of sources has resulted in an emphasis on North American literature.

Stone Tool Research at the End of the Millennium: Procurement and Technology

The literature of stone tool procurement and technology published in the past decade is reviewed in this article. The presentation attempts to be geographically comprehensive but, because of where it was written, it provides fuller coverage of New World publications, particularly those from North America, than of literature from the rest of the world. Topics covered include raw materials and procurement, flake experimentation, technology, and specific tool types. An article in a subsequent issue of this journal will discuss issues of function, behavior, and classification in lithic analysis.

Some Comments on a Continuing Debate

The chapters in this volume were discussed thoroughly during the four days of the conference that spawned them. As with most discussions, the tide ebbed and flowed, sometimes centering on the details of a particular paper but often contributing to a better understanding of a more general issue. In this final chapter we have compiled the principal points made, in as readable and logically organized a format as we could muster. Arguments do not necessarily appear here in their original order, and the points made in any particular section may not even have occurred in the same discussion. Every attempt has been made, however, to retain the original intent and context in which the remarks were delivered.

Encountering Prehistoric Behavior

The foregoing chapters have laid the groundwork for most forms of lithic analysis practiced today, either by discussing concepts and analytical options or by introducing literature that can be accessed to provide more detailed coverage than is appropriate in a manual like this. Questions that have been addressed so far concern how to conduct specific analyses, which techniques are most effective, and whether or not certain indicators are reliable; in other words, procedural issues. But no matter how important the acquisition of methodological proficiency is, the ultimate goal of archaeology should involve the acquisition of knowledge about prehistoric lifeways and cultural processes. Accepting that methodological refinement is a lifelong endeavor, once a researcher is familiar with the range of technical options available for appropriate archaeological questions, it is time to apply these techniques to issues of human behavior.

History of Stone Tool Research

Stone tools, which constitute the earliest record of human material culture, have fascinated scholars since archaeology was in its infancy (e.g., Evans 1897; Leakey 1934:3; Roe 1970; Feder 1996:19-21). Early in modern archaeological research, prehistorians were confronted with the difficulty of distinguishing actual prehistorically fashioned stone tools from look-alikes made by natural forces, a situation that spawned a controversy over “eoliths,” or “dawn stones,” i.e., tools originating at the dawn of humankind (Moir 1912, 1920; Warren 1914, 1923). It was not until several years after the apogee of that discussion that Barnes (1939) formulated criteria for humanly flaked tools that put the matter to rest, though objects of potential archaeological interest are often ambiguous enough that the subject keeps cropping up from time to time (e.g., Peacock 1991).