There is an odd contrast between the ubiquity of stone tools and production debris on archaeological sites and the absence, particularly in North America, both of clearly defined approaches to analyzing this material and, often, of systematic training in such analysis. Although elements of a reasonably uniform approach to lithic analysis exist (for example, in the definitions of stages of biface production, in the classification of at least some forms of retouched artifacts, particularly projectile points, and, increasingly, in important aspects of debitage analysis), North American lithic analysis stands in particularly stark contrast to Paleolithic Europe. We may debate the meaning of Paleolithic stone tool types, but these types are clearly defined and broadly used, and this allows direct comparisons of assemblages from site to site and region to region. Furthermore, students are typically trained specifically in how to identify these types, meaning that such comparisons can generally be made with some confidence. In contrast, American lithic analysis is often methodologically idiosyncratic, the criteria by which important characteristics are judged (for example, resharpening of projectile points) are often left unspecified, and students are often expected to learn to work with stone tool assemblages through a kind of disciplinary osmosis. The results of this are that it is often difficult to compare data generated by different analysts taking widely varying approaches and, in my experience at least, errors of identification and inference can be all too common. This book aims to change all of this by providing (1) an overview of many of the basic conceptual and technical issues involved in the study of flaked stone tools and production debris, (2) a basic universal descriptive classification scheme for stone artifacts, and (3) several case studies. The first three chapters offer some basic background to the study of flaked stone technology. Topics covered include a short history of lithic analysis and brief overviews of studies of stone tool use, experimental replication, descriptive terminology (there is a very useful glossary), fracture mechanics, changes in stone tool morphology at different points in a tool's uselife, and geologic classification of different kinds of stone (geoarchaeologists may particularly welcome a source within the archaeological literature clarifying rock terminology). The next four chapters focus more narrowly on the actual analysis of stone artifacts. These discuss general issues in archaeological classification and then outline a basic descriptive classification of flaked stone objects that can be applied to any collection. There are two chapters on debitage analysis (one on describing/measuring flake characteristics and the other on approaches to making use of data derived from such measurements), and a chapter on the analysis of worked pieces (cores, flake tools, and bifaces). The final chapters discuss some of the ways in which archaeologists, particularly North American archaeologists, have used lithic analysis to examine past human settlement/ mobility patterns, emphasizing studies of site function and sedentism.
We have needed a book like this for a long time, and this volume should be widely used both for classes in basic lithic analysis (for which there is no other text) and by students struggling with more osmotic approaches to learning about lithic analysis. The book's emphasis on morphological change in tool form as a result of resharpening and/or recycling from one use to another provides an essential lesson for novice analysts, and its clear focus on specific research topics in the later chapters models a commitment to problem-oriented analysis that is all too often absent from the literature. I would like to have seen a wider range of examples chosen to illustrate how lithic analysis can contribute to our