Title Prehistoric stone tools of Eastern Africa : a guide / John J. Shea

Published New York : Cambridge University Press, 2020

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Description 1 online resource Contents Cover -- Half-title -- Title page -- Copyright information -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- List of Boxes -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1 Introduction -- What Is Eastern Africa? -- What Is Prehistory? -- What Are Stone Tools? -- Why a Guidebook for Eastern African Stone Tools? -- How Is This Book Organized? -- Uwazi Valley Tales, Episode 1: Wazungu -- Chapter 2 Stone Tools: Essential Terms and Concepts -- Terms for Stoneworking and for Stone Tools -- Stoneworking versus Flintknapping -- Stoneworking Mechanics and Techniques -- Stone Tools Stone Tool Groups -- Technological Organization -- Sources of Information about Stone Tools -- Actualistic Observations -- Ethnography -- Experimental Archaeology -- Ethology -- Contextual Observations -- Stratigraphic Associations -- Refitting Artifacts -- Tool-Marks -- Microwear -- Residues -- How to Misinterpret Stone Tools -- Uwazi Valley Tales, Episode 2: The Valley of Clarity -- Chapter 3 How to Read Stone Tools -- What Kind of Rock Is It? -- Lithic Raw Materials -- Lithic Raw Material Use in Prehistoric Eastern Africa -- Identifying Rocks' Sources -- Is It an Artifact? -- Abrasion Fracture -- Thermal Alteration -- Deciding: Artifact, or geofact, or both? -- Chronological Outliers -- What Kind of Artifact Is It? -- Percussors and Groundstone Artifacts -- Cores and Core-Tools -- Flakes, Flake Fragments, and Retouched Pieces -- Archaeological Reality -- Uwazi Valley Tales, Episode 3: Old Habits Die Hard -- Chapter 4 Eastern Africa -- Geology and Geography -- Prehistoric Research: a Brief History -- The Exploratory Period -- The Culture-Historical Period -- The Processualizing Period -- Implications for Research Today -- Chronological Frameworks for Eastern African Prehistory The Earlier Stone Age -- The Middle Stone Age -- The Later Stone Age -- The Neolithic Period -- The Iron Age -- Uwazi Valley Tales, Episode 4: Ancient Ones' Cave -- Chapter 5 The Eastern African Lithic Record -- Artifact-Types and Industries -- Earlier Stone Age Lithic Technology -- Middle Stone Age Lithic Technology -- Later Stone Age Lithic Technology -- Neolithic Stone Tools -- Iron Age and Historic Stone Tools -- The Eastern African Prehistoric Stoneworking Survey -- Materials: The Sample Assemblages -- Methods: Stoneworking Modes A-I -- Identifying Modes Variation among the Sample Assemblages -- The Eastern African Stone Tool Typology: An Introduction -- Uwazi Valley Tales, Episode 5: Questions and Lessons -- Chapter 6 Cores and Core-Tools -- Measuring Cores and Core-Tools -- Short Nonhierarchical Cores (Group I) -- Unipolar Cores -- Bipolar Cores -- Short Bifacial Cores -- Polyhedrons -- Hierarchical Cores (EAST Group II) -- Bifacial Hierarchical Cores -- Unifacial Hierarchical Cores -- Other Cores (Group III) -- Mega-Cores -- Micro-Cores -- Cores-on-Flakes -- Elongated Core-Tools (Group IV) -- Long Core-Tools -- Foliate Points Summary "Stone tools are the least familiar objects that archaeologists recover from their excavations, and predictably, they struggle to understand them. Eastern Africa alone boasts a 3.4 million-year-long archaeological record but its stone tool evidence still remains disorganized, unsynthesized, and all 8 but-impenetrable to non-experts, and especially so to students from Eastern African countries. In this book, John J. Shea offers a simple, straightforward, and richly illustrated introduction in how to read stone tools. An experienced stone tool analyst and an expert stoneworker, he synthesizes the Eastern African stone tool evidence for the first time. Shea presents the EAST Typology, a new 15 framework for describing stone tools specifically designed to allow archaeologist to do what they currently cannot: compare stone tool evidence across the full sweep of Eastern African prehistory. He also includes a series of short, fictional , and humorous vignettes set on an Eastern 20 African archaeological excavation, which illustrate the major issues and controversies in research about stone tools"-- Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed Subject Tools, Prehistoric -- Africa, Eastern Stone implements -- Africa, Eastern Stone implements Tools, Prehistoric Eastern Africa Form Electronic book LC no. 2019046108 ISBN 9781108334969 1108334962

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