Big debates over little tools
Ongoing Disputes Over Microliths on Three Continents
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3919973 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Peter Hiscock (0000-0002-8893-4742, Australian National University), Chris Clarkson (0000-0001-7363-0722), A Mackay (0000-0002-6396-0821, Australian National University) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 653-664 |
| Publication date | 2011-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | World Archaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0043-8243 • E-ISSN: 1470-1375 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00438243.2011.624755 |
| OpenAlex | W2087811245 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 61 |
| References cited | 45 |
After more than a century, debate over the explanation of microliths continues. We review debates on three continents (Australia, India and southern Africa), and argue that depictions of them as purely symbolic items manufactured for public display are implausible. Two different mechanisms dominate recent discussions: 1) exchange of symbolically loaded artefacts as a device for constructing cultural connections and establishing access to territory/resources, and 2) microliths as portable and standardized tools that helped buffer foragers against economic risk and/or scheduling difficulties by increasing multi-functionality and tool readiness as an aid in reducing fluctuations in resource capture. We show that there is a different history and pattern to microlith use on each continent and dissimilar environmental contexts for microlith-intensive phases. This conclusion challenges any notion that a single simple process underpins microlith use across the globe and implies that comparative studies might enhance understandings of this process of technological change
Economic geography · Geography · Sociology · Anthropology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Environmental, Ecological, and Cultural Studies · History · International Maritime Law Issues
Learning in Lithic Landscapes
Going big versus going small
Understanding the Microlithic technology in the Lower Ganga Basin, Eastern India
Lithic Technology in Lagoa Santa in the Early Holocene
Mid to Late Quaternary Landscape and Environmental Dynamics in the Middle Stone Age of Southern South Africa
Uncertain Evidence for Weapons and Craft Tools
A Matter of Space and Time
The South Asian Microlithic
The Hoabinhian of Southeast Asia and its Relationship to Regional Pleistocene Lithic Technologies
Horizons of Change
The Bow-and-Arrow along the Southern Arc and Through to Oceania
A new archaeological chrono-cultural sequence for the rock art site of Ndalambiri, Cuanza Sul, Angola
Technological persistency following faunal stability during the Pleistocene
Discontinuities in hunter-gatherer prehistory in southern African drylands
Lithic technology and social transformations in the South Indian Neolithic
Relations between rock art and ritual practice
School of Rocks
Akyekyema Bour and Apreku Rock Shelters
Miniaturized Lithic Technology at the Shanghu Site (Southern China) and its Implications
Functional Perspectives on Lithic Standardization
Stone tool backing and adhesion in hunting weaponry
Regional Variability in Lithic Miniaturization and the Organization of Technology in Late Glacial Southern Africa (~18-11 kcal BP)
The Knapping of Quartz Crystals during the Later Stone Age at Matupi Cave, Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of Congo
Reduction intensity of backed blades
Specialised lithic technology of terminal Pleistocene maritime peoples of Wallacea
An experimental approach to distinguishing different stone artefact transport patterns from debitage assemblages
The flake microlithism in the European Pleistocene
The performance of heat-treated silcrete backed pieces in actualistic and controlled complex projectile experiments
Frequency and production technology of bladelets in Late Middle Paleolithic, Initial Upper Paleolithic, and Early Upper Paleolithic (Ahmarian) assemblages in Jebel Qalkha, Southern Jordan
Incised stone artefact in the context of Middle Holocene burials at Cappalombo 1, South Sulawesi, Indonesia | Artefak batu bergores dalam konteks penguburan Holosen Tengah di Situs Cappalombo 1, Sulawesi Selatan, Indonesia
The Identification and Recovery of Backing Debitage
Abundant blade segments at Shuidonggou, Locality 1
Technological analysis of the quartz industry of Maboué 5 – Layer 3 (Lopé National Park, Gabon)
Microlithic, faunal, floral and isotopic data from an archaeological site 14C dated to LGM in the eastern state of Odisha, India
Lithics of the late Middle Palaeolithic
Tracking Occupational Intensity Using Archaeo-faunal Data
Lithic analysis of the Middle and Late Upper Palaeolithic in Hungary
Still Bay and Howiesons Poort Foraging Strategies
Early LGM Environments Accelerated the MSA/LSA Transition in Southern African Highlands
Stone tool assemblages and models for the dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa
Continuity and change in the lithic industries of the Jurreru Valley, India, before and after the Toba eruption
First technological comparison of Southern African Howiesons Poort and South Asian Microlithic industries
Microliths in the Middle and Later Stone Age of eastern Africa
An empirical test of the relative frequency of bipolar reduction in Beds VI, V, and III at Mumba Rockshelter, Tanzania
Measuring core reduction using 3D flake scar density
The Pleistocene prehistory of the Lake Victoria basin
Bowhunting with Poisoned Arrows in the Afrotropics from Recent Times to the Pleistocene
The Evolution of Equality
Assemblage variability and bifacial points in the lowermost Sibudan layers at Sibudu, South Africa
Study of a Newly Discovered Microliths and Rock Art Site, Badedev Rakseha at Panna District of Madhya Pradesh, India
Bosumpra revisited
Aboriginal resources change through time in New England upland wetlands, south‐east Australia
Mahi Wala 1 (MW-1)
Thinking locally
Taphonomic and paleoecological change in the large mammal sequence from Boomplaas Cave, western Cape, South Africa
Coalescence and fragmentation in the late Pleistocene archaeology of southernmost Africa
Lithic miniaturization as adaptive strategy
The Uluzzian in the north of Italy
Experimental and archaeological investigations of backed microlith function among Mid-to-Late Holocene herders in southwestern Kenya
The Origins of War
Diachronic trends in occupation intensity of the Epipaleolithic site of Neve David (Mount Carmel, Israel)
Savage life in Central Australia
Evidence for progressive Holocene aridification in southern Africa recorded in Namibian hyrax middens
The Archaeology of Southern Africa
Journal of Human Evolution
The Middle Stone Age at Klasies River mouth in South Africa
Archaeology of Ancient Australia
Population increase and environmental deterioration correspond with microlithic innovations in South Asia ca. 35,000 years ago
Going East
Southern Africa and modern human origins
Thinking Small
Australia’s Eastern Regional Sequence Revisited
Forum
South African palaeoenvironments during marine oxygen isotope stage 4
The changing abundance of backed artefacts in south-eastern Australia
The Howiesons Poort Backed Artefacts from Klasies River
Changing Social Relations in the Thukela Basin, Natal 7000-2000 BP
Changing fashions in the Middle Stone Age
An Australian perspective on modern behaviour and artefact assemblages
The effect of a top predator on kangaroo abundance in arid Australia and its implications for archaeological faunal assemblages
Archaeological and Geomorphological Investigations on Mt. Moffatt Station, Queensland, Australia
Behavioral ecological models of lithic technological change during the later Middle Stone Age of South Africa
Social and Ecological Models for the Middle Stone Age in Southern Africa
Finding resolution for the Howiesons Poort through the microscope
The Howiesons Poort and MSA III at Klasies River main site, Cave 1A
The Middle Stone Age of East Africa and the beginnings of regional identity
Technological responses to risk in Holocene Australia
Anything more than a picnic? Re‐considering arguments for ceremonial Macrozamia use in mid‐Holocene Australia
Hunters in the Highlands
Pattern and Context in the Holocene Proliferation of Backed Artifacts in Australia
People of the ancient rainforest
The late Pleistocene early microlithic assemblages of southern Africa
Rock art and socio-demography in northeastern Australian prehistory
Multiple uses for Australian backed artefacts
The oldest and longest enduring microlithic sequence in India
The first archaeological evidence for death by spearing in Australia
The archaeology of art
Style and Social Information in Kalahari San Projectile Points
On the Emergence of Modern Humans
Potentially stylistic differences between backed artefacts from two nearby sites occupied ∼60,000 years before present in South Africa
| Unique citing works | 61 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4,07 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2026 (16) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 61 |