Modern humans and their hominid ancestors relied on chipped stone technology for well over two million years and colonized more than 99 percent of the Earth s habitable landmass in doing so Yet there currently exist only a handful of informal models derived from ethnographic observation experiments engineering and common sense to explain variability in archaeological lithic assemblages Because the fundamental processes of making using and discarding stone tools are at root exercises in problem solving Todd Surovell asks what conditions favor certain technological solutions Whether asking if a biface should be made thick or thin or if a flake should be saved or discarded Surovell seeks answers that extend beyond a case by case analysis One avenue for addressing these questions theoretically is formal mathematical modeling Here Surovell constructs a series of models designed to link environmental variability to human decision making as it pertains to lithic technology To test the models Surovell uses data from the analysis of more than 40 000 artifacts from five Rocky Mountain and Northern Plains Folsom and Goshen complex archaeological sites dating to the Younger Dryas stadial ca 12 600 11 500 years BP The primary result is the production of powerful new analytical tools useful to the interpretation of archaeological assemblages Surovell s goal is to promote modeling and explore the general issues governing technological decisions In this light his models can be applied to any context in which stone tools are made and used

Toward a Behavioral Ecology of Lithic Technology PDF

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