lithic biographies in the Neolithic and Bronze Age

Gijn, Annelou van | Paperback / softback | 28-11-2011 | 9789088900334 |
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The biographies of flint objects reveal their various and changing roles in prehistoric life. Using raw material sourcing, technological analysis, experimental archaeology, microwear and residue studies the author tells the story of flint from the Early Neolithic to its virtual demise in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, incorporating data from settlements, burials and hoards from the region of the present-day Netherlands. This richly illustrated book shows the way flint functioned in daily life, how simple domestic tools became ritualized, how flint was used to negotiate change and how the biography of flint objects was related to personhood.

“Expert, thorough and readable. Prehistorians everywhere will find it relevant and insightful…”
John Whittaker (Grinnell College)

“The book we have been waiting for. Flint in Focus puts the uses of stone at the heart of a biographical approach to Neolithic and Bronze Age lithics. With a wealth of insights on the practical and social significance of stone and stoneworking, this groundbreaking study is a model of integrated research.”
Mark Edmonds (University of York)

“Not since Stone Tools and Society (Edmonds 1995) has a single volume so aptly demonstrated the capacity of lithic technology, to elicit and document the social and to offer substance for wider interpretative narratives.” (Cambridge Archaeological Journal)