Prehistoric Quarries and Lithic Production

Prehistoric Quarries and Lithic Production is the first systematic study of archaeological sites that served as quarries for stone tools.

Jonathon E. Ericson (Author), Barbara A. Purdy (Author)

9780521109239, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 18 June 2009

160 pages
28 x 21 x 0.8 cm, 0.36 kg

This book was originally published in 1984. For over a million years rocks provided human beings with the essential raw materials for the production of tools. Nevertheless we still know very little about the behaviour and processes that resulted in the creation of archaeological sites at or near lithic quarries. In the past archaeologists have placed much emphasis on the process of 'exchange' in their analysis of prehistoric economies while largely ignoring the sources of the exchanged objects. However, with the development of interest in the means of production, these sites have begun to take on a new significance. Prehistoric Quarries and Lithic Production is the first systematic study of archaeological sites that served as quarries for stone tools. Its theoretical and methodological importance will extend its appeal beyond those archaeologists concerned with lithic technology and prehistoric exchange systems to archaeologists and anthropologists in general and to geographers and geologists.

Part I. Introduction: 1. Toward the analysis of lithic production systems Jonathon E. Ericson
Part II. Procurement, Production and Exchange: 2. Mount Jasper: a direct-access lithic source area in the White Mountains of New Hampshire R. M. Gramly
3. Procurement without quarry production: examples from southwestern Idaho R. L. Sappington
4. The 63-kilometer fit C. A. Singer
5. Monopoly or direct access? Industrial organization at the Melos obsidian quarries R. Torrence
6. Lithic material demand and quarry production B. E. Luedtke
7. Economic aspects of prehistoric quarrry use: a case study in the American southwest F. J. Findlow and M. Bolognese
8. Preliminary report on the obsidian mines at Pico de Orizaba, Vweracruz T. L. Stocker and R. H. Cobean
9. state controlled procurement and the obsidian workshops of Teotihuacán, Mexico M. W. Spence, J. Kimberlin and G. Harbottle
Part III. Technology and Techniques: 10. Jigsaw: reconstructive lithic technology H. M. Leach
11. Quarrry studies: technological and chronological significance B. A. Purdy
12. Characterization of selected soapstone sources in southern New England W. A. Turnbaugh, S. P. Turnbaugh and T. H. Keifer
13. Reconstructing Corbiac: the context of manufacturing at an Upper Paleolithic quarry E. C. Gibson
Index.

Subject Areas: History [HB]