This essential gives an overview of current methods of analysis of stone artefacts ranging from attribute analysis of entire assemblages to microscopic use-wear analyses of individual artefacts. The approaches presented show the range of analysis of prehistoric stone artefacts in German-speaking countries. Simple application examples illustrate the possibilities and limitations of each method. The content and structure of the essentials is identical to teaching units for learning methods of stone artefact analysis at the University of Tübingen in the Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology.

The content

Attribute, transformation and working stage analysis

Chaîne opératoire approach

Analysis of techno-functional units

Microscopic use-wear analysis

The target groups

Students and lecturers of archaeology and prehistory

Lay people interested in archaeology and stone tools

About the authors:

Yvonne Tafelmaier is consultant for Palaeolithic and Mesolithic at the State Office for Cultural Heritage Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Guido Bataille is consultant in the World Heritage department at the State Office for Cultural Heritage Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Viola C. Schmid and Andreas Taller are research assistants at the Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology at the University of Tübingen.

Manuel Will is a lecturer at the Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology at the University of Tübingen.

This book is a translation of an original German edition. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation.

Autorentext

Yvonne Tafelmaier is a consultant for the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic at the Landesamt für Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg.

Guido Bataille is a consultant in the World Heritage department at the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Baden-Württemberg. Viola C. Schmid and Andreas Taller are research assistants at the Institute for Pre- and Early History & Medieval Archaeology at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen.

Manuel Will is a research assistant at the Institute for Pre- and Early History & Medieval Archaeology at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen.