Pushing the Envelope

Stone tools are the most ubiquitous and oldest variety of archaeological artefacts. Humans have made stone tools for the last 2.6 million years on every continent of the inhabited world. As such, they constitute the most important source of information about both past patterns of human behaviour and evolution. In spite of these facts and after more than two centuries of systematic study, the analysis of stone tools remains a relatively under-developed science. This book presents a series of research projects designed to "push the envelope" in terms of the limits of our methodological knowledge concerning stone tools. It presents a series of experimental studies designed to approach the analysis of stone tools, the construction of inferences about the human past, and the building of novel theory to explain it.