New Perspectives on Old Stones

As the study of Palaeolithic technologies moves towards a more analytical approach, it is necessary to determine a consistent procedural framework. The contributions to this timely and comprehensive volume do just that. This volume incorporates a broad chronological and geographical range of Palaeolithic material from the Lower to Upper Palaeolithic. The focus of this volume is to provide an analysis of Palaeolithic technologies from a quantitative, empirical perspective.

As new techniques, particularly quantitative methods, for analyzing Palaeolithic technologies gain popularity, this work provides case studies showcasing these new techniques.

Employing diverse case studies, and utilizing multivariate approaches, morphometrics, model-based approaches, phylogenetics, cultural transmission studies, and experimentation, this volume provides insights from international contributors at the forefront of recent methodological advances.

• Acheulean
• Geometric Morphometrics (GM)
• Lithics
• Paleoindian
• Paleolithic
• Pressure Flaking
• Reversed Ontogenies
• Social transmission
• Stone Tool morphology
• chaines operatoires
• cultural evolution
• handaxes
• middle pleistocene
• pleistocene
• stone tools

Now thanks to Lycett and Chauhan’s (2010) New Perspectives on Old Stones1, Dunnell’s "route to science" becomes a four-lane super-highway, clear and paved, and I hear street-lamps are being installed next week.... By reminding us of "Clarkeian trends" (see below) and linking them with advancements in, and the application of, digital recording techniques, computer programming and simulation, and flaked stone replication, the volume editors and contributors put an exclamation point on the resurgence of rational, coherent, logical, and truly "analytical" approaches to Paleolithic stone tools and detritus.

To those who have ever said "I do not need statistics to tell me about stone tools;" to those who shrug off hypothesis-testing and quantitative assessment; and, to those who rely upon authority and experience over evidence and verification, be warned: New Perspectives is a game-changer.

The papers within not only make flaked stone analysis relevant to the rest of paleoanthropology and biology via the scientific method, but epitomize productive, reality-based, and in these times of economic woe, cost-effective research.

Review by Metin I. Eren,  PaleoAnthropology 2011: 199-202.

The papers within not only make flaked stone analysis relevant to the rest of paleoanthropology and biology via the scientific method, but epitomize productive, reality-based, and in these times of economic woe, cost-effective research.

Review by Metin I. Eren,  PaleoAnthropology 2011: 199-202.

To those who have ever said "I do not need statistics to tell me about stone tools;" to those who shrug off hypothesis-testing and quantitative assessment; and, to those who rely upon authority and experience over evidence and verification, be warned: New Perspectives is a game-changer.

The papers within not only make flaked stone analysis relevant to the rest of paleoanthropology and biology via the scientific method, but epitomize productive, reality-based, and in these times of economic woe, cost-effective research.

Review by Metin I. Eren,  PaleoAnthropology 2011: 199-202.

The papers within not only make flaked stone analysis relevant to the rest of paleoanthropology and biology via the scientific method, but epitomize productive, reality-based, and in these times of economic woe, cost-effective research.

Review by Metin I. Eren,  PaleoAnthropology 2011: 199-202.

• School of Archaeology, Classics &, Egyptology, University of Liverpool, London, United Kingdom

  Stephen Lycett

• CRAFT Stone Age Institute, Indiana University, Gosport, USA

  Parth Chauhan

Stephen Lycett is Lecturer in Human Evolution at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. He gained his PhD from the University of Cambridge (2006) and his MSc from University College London (2003). His research traverses the boundaries of Palaeolithic Archaeology, Palaeoanthropology and Biological Anthropology. He has published on a broad range of research questions including cultural evolution in hominins and nonhuman primates, morphometrics, lithic analysis, hominin dispersals, hominid phylogenetics and species identification in the fossil record. He is particularly interested in cultural transmission theory and how this approach can help shed light on the evolution of material culture.

Parth R. Chauhan is an Indian-American Research Associate with the Stone Age Institute (Indiana, USA). He obtained his PhD from the University of Sheffield (UK) in 2005 and his MA from Deccan College Postgraduate Research Institute (Pune, India) in 1998. His research interests include Old World prehistory, Palaeolithic archaeology, hominin dispersals, Asian paleoanthropology, vertebrate paleontology and taphonomy and lithic technology. He is currently carrying out research on early human technological and environmental adaptations during the Quaternary of India and Yemen.  

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