A Record in Stone
A Study of Australia's Flaked Stone Artefacts
A Record in Stone is an ambitious and thoroughgoing investigation of the different ways in which archaeologists use flaked stone artefacts as a basis for reconstructing the distant human past.
The goal that authors Simon Holdaway and Nicola Stern set themselves is not simply to describe the range of flaked stone artefact forms recovered from Australian archaeological sites, but also to situate Australian studies in terms of the major international theoretical currents surrounding the description of stone artefacts.
Drawing on a wealth of archaeological literature, Holdaway and Stern introduce the reader to the essentials of flaked stone artefact manufacture and to key theoretical approaches to artefact analysis. Building on this introductory material, the authors then present an in-depth review of techniques used in the description and analysis of the three primary divisions of the stone artefact record: flakes, cores and tools.
The concluding chapters of A Record in Stone review existing typologies of Australian flaked stone artefacts and offer a cogent assessment of the historical development of archaeological investigation in this country.
A Record in Stone is intended to appeal to a broad readership. Beginning students of archaeology - and interested amateurs - will quickly master the basic description of flaked stone artefacts, aided by this volume's breadth of coverage, clear and succinct definitions of technical terms, and extensive use of illustrations.
Archaeological professionals are offered an insightful synthesis of the theoretical debates in the often controversial area of stone artefact studies, and will appreciate the large number of illustrations and the extensive bibliography.
Production Details
- Paperback
- 240mm x 175mm x 25mm
- 400pp
- Released August 2004
- ISBN 9780855754600
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Structure and content
Illustrations
Illustration numbering
Chapter 1: Studying stone artefacts- Materials, production process and basic definitions
Chapter 2: Frameworks for studying stone artefacts
Chapter 3: Attributes used in describing flakes
Chapter 4: Attributes used in describing tools
Chapter 5: Attributes used in describing cores
Chapter 6: Artefact types
Chapter 7: From artefacts to an understanding of the human past
Appendix: Figures (text and CD)
References
Index
Boxed text
About The Author
Simon Holdaway is a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He studied Palaeolithic archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania and has conducted fieldwork in the south of France, the rainforests of Tasmania and Australia’s semi-arid core, as well as New Zealand. Nicola Stern is a senior lecturer at La Trobe University in Australia.
Nicola Stern studied Palaeolithic archaeology at Harvard University and has undertaken fieldwork on the earliest archaeological traces in Kenya and Malawi as well as the more recent archaeological records of Tasmania and semi-arid Australia. Together Holdaway and Stern bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the study of Australian stone artefacts.