New Perspectives on Old Stones

Stephen Lycett is Lecturer in Human Evolution at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. He gained his PhD from the University of Cambridge (2006) and his MSc from University College London (2003). His research traverses the boundaries of Palaeolithic Archaeology, Palaeoanthropology and Biological Anthropology. He has published on a broad range of research questions including cultural evolution in hominins and nonhuman primates, morphometrics, lithic analysis, hominin dispersals, hominid phylogenetics and species identification in the fossil record. He is particularly interested in cultural transmission theory and how this approach can help shed light on the evolution of material culture. Parth R. Chauhan is an Indian-American Research Associate with the Stone Age Institute (Indiana, USA). He obtained his PhD from the University of Sheffield (UK) in 2005 and his MA from Deccan College Postgraduate Research Institute (Pune, India) in 1998. His research interests include Old World prehistory, Palaeolithic archaeology, hominin dispersals, Asian paleoanthropology, vertebrate paleontology and taphonomy and lithic technology. He is currently carrying out research on early human technological and environmental adaptations during the Quaternary of India and Yemen.   .

Analytical Approaches to Palaeolithic Technologies: An Introduction.- A Geometric Morphometric Assessment of Plan Shape in Bone and Stone Acheulean Bifaces from the Middle Pleistocene Site of Castel di Guido, Latium, Italy.- Regional Diversity Within the Core Technology of the Howiesons Poort Techno-Complex.- Questioning the Link Between Stone Tool Standardization and Behavioral Modernity.- The Quantitative Analysis of Mobility: Ecological Techniques and Archaeological Extensions.- Metrical Variability Between South Asian Handaxe Assemblages: Preliminary Observations.- Quantifying Variation in Landscape-Scale Behaviors: The Oldowan from Koobi Fora.- The Mathematics of Chaînes Opératoires.- Cultural Transmission, Genetic Models and Palaeolithic Variability: Integrative Analytical Approaches.- Comparing Stone Tool Resharpening Trajectories with the Aid of Elliptical Fourier Analysis.- An Assessment of the Impact of Resharpening on Paleoindian Projectile Point Blade Shape Using Geometric Morphometric Techniques.- Stone-Tool Demography: Reduction Distributions in North American Paleoindian Tools.- The Future of Lithic Analysis in Palaeolithic Archaeology: A View from the Old World.- The Future of Paleolithic Studies: A View from the New World.

Now thanks to Lycett and Chauhan’s (2010) New Perspectives on Old Stones1, Dunnell’s "route to science" becomes a four-lane super-highway, clear and paved, and I hear street-lamps are being installed next week.... By reminding us of "Clarkeian trends" (see below) and linking them with advancements in, and the application of, digital recording techniques, computer programming and simulation, and flaked stone replication, the volume editors and contributors put an exclamation point on the resurgence of rational, coherent, logical, and truly "analytical" approaches to Paleolithic stone tools and detritus. To those who have ever said "I do not need statistics to tell me about stone tools;" to those who shrug off hypothesis-testing and quantitative assessment; and, to those who rely upon authority and experience over evidence and verification, be warned: New Perspectives is a game-changer. The papers within not only make flaked stone analysis relevant to the rest of paleoanthropology and biology via the scientific method, but epitomize productive, reality-based, and in these times of economic woe, cost-effective research. Review by Metin I. Eren,  PaleoAnthropology 2011: 199-202. New Perspectives is a game-changer. The papers within not only make flaked stone analysis relevant to the rest of paleoanthropology and biology via the scientific method, but epitomize productive, reality-based, and in these times of economic woe, cost-effective research. Review by Metin I. Eren,  PaleoAnthropology 2011: 199-202. To those who have ever said "I do not need statistics to tell me about stone tools;" to those who shrug off hypothesis-testing and quantitative assessment; and, to those who rely upon authority and experience over evidence and verification, be warned: New Perspectives is a game-changer. The papers within not only make flaked stone analysis relevant to the rest of paleoanthropology and biology via the scientific method, but epitomize productive, reality-based, and in these times of economic woe, cost-effective research. Review by Metin I. Eren,  PaleoAnthropology 2011: 199-202. New Perspectives is a game-changer. The papers within not only make flaked stone analysis relevant to the rest of paleoanthropology and biology via the scientific method, but epitomize productive, reality-based, and in these times of economic woe, cost-effective research. Review by Metin I. Eren,  PaleoAnthropology 2011: 199-202.