ABOUT THIS BOOK

Lithic Technologies in SedentarySocieties examines lithic technology from ancient societies in Mesoamerica, the Near East, South Asia, and North America, showcasing the important contributions in-depth lithic analysis can make to the study of sedentary societies around the world. Using cutting-edge analytical techniques these case studies address difficult anthropological questions concerning economic, social, and political issues, as well as global trends in lithic production.

Lithic analysis focused on sedentary societies, especially in places like Mesoamerica, has previously been neglected mostly because of the high frequency of informal tools, but such bias limits the ways in which both lithic production and economic organization are investigated. Bringing the importance of studying such technologies to the fore and emphasizing the vital anthropological questions that lithics can answer, Lithic Technologies in Sedentary Societies is a valuable resource for scholars and students of lithic technology and sedentary, complex societies.

Contributors: Fumi Arakawa, Mary A. Davis, James Enloe, Dan Healan, Francesca Manclossi, Theodore Marks, Jayur Madhusudan Mehta, Jason S. R. Paling, Steve Rosen, John Whittaker

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Rachel A. Horowitz is a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Appalachian State University. Her research interests include lithic technology, technological organization, economic organization, and the Maya. Her work has been published in several journals and edited volumes including American Antiquity, Paleoanthropology, Journal of Field Archaeology, and Journal of Archaeological Sciences: Reports.

Grant S. McCall is executive director of the Center for Human-Environmental Research and associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at Tulane University. His research interests include stone tool technology, human evolution, rock art research, hunter-gatherer ethnology, African prehistory, and political philosophy. He is also the editor of Lithic Technology.

REVIEWS

“The editors have developed a significant new topic that will have broad implications to archaeologists across the world.”
—Peter Bleed, emeritus professor, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

"A substantial contribution to the study of lithic technology, presenting case studies of stone artifacts in sedentary societies in South Asia, the Near East, Mesoamerica, and North America. . . . the volume demonstrates the important information that lithic artifacts can provide about anthropological questions, such as economic activities, political organization, resource and production management, and the relationship between societal and technological change."
—Latin American Antiquity

"Horowitz and McCall and their colleagues do an excellent job of showing that the stone tools found on sites belonging to sedentary food producers or those of urban societies do matter, not least by illustrating the variety of ways in which they can be productively investigated. . . . of interest and value not only to lithic specialists, but also to anthropological archaeologists as a whole."
—Journal ofthe Royal Anthropological Institute

“The chapters in this volume make substantial contributions to the study of lithic technologies in sedentary societies. . . the unifying economic focus makes this work important to the broader discipline of anthropology.”
—Sixteenth Century Journal

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Acknowledgments

1. Lithics in Sedentary Societies: Themes, Methods, and Directions / Rachel A. Horowitz and Grant S. McCall

2. Urban Lithics: The Role of Stone Tools in the Indus Civilization and at Harappa / Mary A. Davis

3. The Importance of Being Ad Hoc: Patterns and Implications of Expedient Lithic Production in the Bronze Age in Israel / Francesca Manclossi and Steven A Rosen

4. Leaving No Stone Unturned: Expedient Lithic Production among Preclassic Households of San Estevan, Belize, and K’o and Hamontún, Guatemala / Jason S.R. Paling

5. The Economic Organization of the Extraction and Production of Utilitarian Chert Tools in the Mopan Valley, Belize / Rachel A. Horowitz

6. Chert at Chalcatzingo: Implications of Knapping Strategies and Technological Organization for Formative Economics / Grant S. McCall, Rachel A. Horowitz, and Dan M. Healan

7. Unraveling Sociopolitical Organization Using Lithic Data: A Case Study from an Agricultural Society in the American Southwest / Fumiyasu Arakawa

8. Using Portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) to Source Burlington Chert from the Carson Site, 22CO505, Coahoma County, Mississippi / Jayur Madhusudan Mehta, Grant S. McCall, Theodore Marks, and James Enloe

9. Stone Age Economics: Efficiency, Blades, Specialization, and Obsolescence / John C. Whittaker

List of Contributors

Index

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