Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Near

Stone tools, or lithics, are the least familiar artifacts archaeologists encounter in our research. Most of us have more than a passing acquaintance with artifacts made of ceramics or metal. We have household words for them, such as “bowl” or “nail,” that transfer readily into archaeological analysis. Few students come to archaeology already familiar with stone tools. When and where preservation of organic remains is poor, however, stone tools may be the only remaining evidence of prehistoric human behavior. Because they are so well preserved – indeed, nearly indestructible – stone tools are common touchstones for comparisons of human and hominin behavior across vast expanses of time and space. Plio-Pleistocene sites in East Africa and Near Eastern Neolithic villages have little else in common with one another, other than a lithic archaeological record. Stone tools were not necessarily the most important artifacts in the lives of prehistoric humans. Recent humans who make and use stone tools often did not give these artifacts a second thought after having made, used, and discarded them (Holdaway and Douglas 2012). Archaeologists, in contrast, devote vast amounts of time and energy to excavating, measuring, drawing, and analyzing lithic artifacts, all in the hope of reconstructing significant dimensions of prehistoric human behavior (Andrefsky 2005, Brézillon 1977, Inizan et al. 1999, Odell 2004). To understand the prehistory of any region, archaeology students have to learn to identify dozens of stone artifact-types.