Lithic resource studies: A sourcebook for archaeologists. Tim Church (with contributions by J. E. Francis and C. E. Haury), 1994, Lithic Technology Special Publication 3, Department of Anthropology, University of Tulsa, iii + 265 p., $23.00 (paperbound).
✍ Scribed by Larry D. Banks
- Book ID
- 101296996
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 41 KB
- Volume
- 12
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0883-6353
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
This 255-page volume is exactly what it is purported to be in the title, seven chapters of discussion and bibliographic citations for almost every conceivable study related to the growing corpus of knowledge being compiled on this specialized field of study in geological and archaeological sciences. Of the seven chapters, two are written by Cherie Haury and Julie Francis on ''Defining Lithic Procurement Terminology'' and ''Fear and Loathing in Wyoming: Documentation and Evaluation at Lithic Procurement Sites,'' respectively, in assessing their subjects from a basis of considerable personal experience. In some respects, the problems and issues discussed by Haury and Francis are reiterations of concerns that have been addressed earlier by others, but these bring a meaningful clarity to some of the specific issues through personal experiences and practical applications that are not always presented in other quarters. The other five chapters, compiled and written by Tim Church, also reflect a wealth of information gleaned from long term experience and knowledgeable insights. In addition to the chapter specifically devoted to references, each individual chapter also contains specific reference citations that are useful. Also, very useful sidebar notes used in the margins of the text are beneficial for ready reference to details being discussed in each respective paragraph.
While all the information contained in the volume flows with the subject in a very concise and comprehensible format, the information contained in Chapters 5 ''The Wonders of Geological Analysis'', and 6 ''What? Someone's Already Done It'' are well worth the cost of the whole volume; Chapter 5 presents informed up to date assessments of the various analytical techniques used, successfully and unsuccessfully, for identification and provenance sourcing of various lithic materials with a heavy emphasis, of course, on rock used for chipped stone tools. The techniques specifically addressed comprise the bulk, if not the complete range, of realistic techniques that could or should be devoted to lithic identifications. The discussions of each type vary, of course, in length and depth, and one of the few weaknesses in the volume is that more information would probably be beneficial to those unfamiliar with the techniques in general. This reviewer, for example, believes that the use of comparative analysis is, in most instances, the best and most cost-effective procedure in initial sourcing, and Church et al. could have added considerably more to this element of analysis than they did.
For each of the techniques being discussed, abundant citations and references for a more in-depth understanding of the various techniques is provided for the reader to pursue at their own desire or need. The discussions of analytical techniques proceed, more or less, from the simplest and least costly to the more complex and expensive beginning with descriptions of physical properties as in any introductory class in min-