In archaeology, lithic analysis is the analysis of stone tools using basic scientific techniques. Lithic analysis involves measuring various physical aspects of stone tools as well as observing the tool type, its characteristics, the presence features such as cortex, and the like. The term 'lithic analysis' can technically refer to any study of humanly-modified stone, but in its usual sense it is applied to archaeological material, either of the ground or knapped variety, particularly stone tools. A thorough understanding of the lithic reduction and ground stone processes, in combination with the use of statistics, can allow the analyst to draw conclusions concerning the type of lithic manufacturing techniques used at an prehistoric archaeological site. Archaeology or archeology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech/discourse) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ... Ancient stone tools A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made of stone. ... Cortex (Latin for bark) has different meanings, depending on the context: In neuroanatomy: the cerebral cortex (often simply called cortex) is the thin wrinkled outermost layer of the brain. ... Archaeology or archeology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech/discourse) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ... Ancient stone tools A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made of stone. ... An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been investigated using the discipline of archaeology. ...

The term knapped is synonymous with "chipped" or "struck", but is preferred by some analysts because it signifies intentionality and process. Ground stone generally refers to any tool made by a combination of flaking, pecking, pounding, grinding, drilling, and incising, and includes things such as mortars, pestles, grinding slabs, handstones, grooved and perforated stones, axes etc., which appear in all human cultures in some form. Among the tool types analyzed are projectile points, bifaces, unifaces, ground stone artifacts, and lithic reduction by-products such as flakes and cores. A mortar and pestle are two tools used with each other to grind and mix substances. ... Mortar and pestle A mortar and pestle are two tools used with each other to grind and mix substances. ... Acorn grinding stone. ... The axe (or ax) is an ancient and ubiquitous tool that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood, harvest timber, as a weapon and a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. ... In archaeology, a projectile point is an object that was hafted and used either as knife or projectile tip or both. ... In archaeology, a biface is a two-sided stone tool, manufactured through a process of lithic reduction, that displays flake scars on both sides. ... In archeology, a uniface is a specific type of stone tool that has been flaked on one surface only. ... In archaeology, ground stone is a category of stone tool formed by the grinding of a coarse-grained tool stone, either purposefully or incidentally. ... Lithic reduction involves the use of a hard hammer percussor, such as a hammerstone, a soft hammer fabricator made of wood, bone or antler, or a wood or antler punch to detach lithic flakes from a lump of tool stone called a lithic core. ... In archaeology, a lithic flake is a thin, sharp fragment of stone that results from the process of lithic reduction. ... In archaeology, a lithic core is a distinctive artifact that results from the practice of lithic reduction. ...

Materials

Stone is the one material which is used by (virtually) all human cultures and, for the vast majority of the human past, is the only record of human behaviour. The end of prehistory does not signify the end of stone working; stones were knapped in Medieval Europe, well into the 19th century in many parts of Europe and the Americas. Contemporary stone tool manufacturers often work stone for experimentation with past techniques or for replication. Sedimentary, volcanic, plutonic, metamorphic rock types of North America. ... The term prehistory (Greek words προ = before and ιστορία = history) is usually used to describe the period before written history became available. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ... World map showing Europe Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiogeographic one. ... World map showing the Americas The Americas commonly refers to the landmass in the Western Hemisphere consisting of the continents of North America, Central America and South America with their associated islands and regions. ...

Flint and chert are the most common knapped materials and are compact cryptocrystalline quartz. The difference between the terms "flint" and "chert" are colloquial, as they are geologically the same type of material. In common usage, flint may refer more often to high quality material from chalky matrix (i.e. "chalk flint" as found in Britain) and chert refers to material from limestone matrixes. To avoid this, the term "silicate" may be used to describe the family of quartzes that are suitable for knapping. Pebble beach made up of flint nodules eroded out of the nearby chalk cliffs, Cape Arkona, Rügen Flint (or flintstone) is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline silica rock with a glassy appearance. ... Chert Chert is a fine-grained silica-rich cryptocrystalline sedimentary rock that may contain small fossils. ... Limey shale overlaid by limestone. ...

In North America, obsidian, or volcanic glass, was also a highly sought-after material for knapping. It was often widely traded. This is due to the quality of the stone, the razor sharpness of edges that can be created, and the fact that it fractures in highly predictable ways. Obsidian from Lake County, Oregon Top stone is obsidian, below that is pumice and in lower right hand is rhyolite (light color) Obsidian is a type of naturally occurring glass, produced from volcanoes when a fluid felsic lava cools rapidly and freezes without sufficient time for crystal growth, for example...

Areas of study

Conventional approaches to the analysis of knapped stone can be grouped into three elementary, yet ultimately interconnected, areas of study: typological analysis, functional analysis, and technological analysis.

Typology

The best known lithic typology is the series established by Francois Bordes (1950) for the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic of France, where sixty three types of stone tools were defined on the basis of manufacturing techniques and morphological characteristics. According to Bordes, the presence or absence of tool types, or differences in the frequency of types between assemblages, were manifestations of cultural differences between ethnic groups. Notwithstanding that there have been several re-evaluations of Bordes’ interpretation of the "ethnicity" of variations in assemblage type composition, the basic assumption that there is explanatory value in the construction of morphologically defined types of artefacts has remained. For instance, the use of typologies as indicators of chronological and/or cultural affiliations is rarely disputed and is acknowledged as an invaluable analytical tool for this purpose. The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic – lit. ...

Function

Functional analysis of stone tools – a term given to a variety of approaches designed with the aim of identifying the use of a stone tool – is based on the argument that the uses to which tools were put in antiquity leave diagnostic damage and/or polish on their working edges. Although there are debates concerning the physics of both edge polishes and edge damage which draw on the science of tribology, modern microwear analysis usually depends on the comparisons of the edge wear of modern experimentally produced samples with archaeological and/or ethnographic tools. The ability of a microwear analyst has been tested in the past using sets of experimentally utilised tools. The mode in which these tools have been applied is unknown to the analyst before analysis. After analysis, comparison can be made between the actual use and the analyst's interpretation (this is known as "blind-testing"). The overall purpose is to provide an accurate, and precise, analytical instrument for the identification of stone tool function. It is worth noting that the precision of functional identifications may range considerably, from "scraping soft material" to "scraping fresh hide for 10 minutes" with a corresponding drop in accuracy as precision increases. Tribology is the science and technology of friction, lubrication, and wear, derived from the Greek tribo meaning I rub. Formally defined, it is the science and technology of interacting surfaces in relative motion and all practices related thereto. ...

Technology

Technological analysis is concerned with the examination of the production of knapped-stone artefacts. The study of the attributes of waste products (debitage) and tools are the most important methods for the study of knapped-stone technology, backed up with experimental production. A very wide range of attributes may be used to characterize and compare assemblages to isolate (and interpret) differences across time and space in the production of stone tools.