Session: #513

Theme & Session Format

Theme:
Theories and methods in archaeological sciences
Session format:
Session, made up of a combination of papers, max. 15 minutes each

Title & Content

Title:
Bridging Oceans and Theoretical Approaches to Lithic Analysis
Content:
Archaeologists who specialize in the analysis of stone tools and knapping debris have a wide array of methodologies available to them. These methods are combined, with greater or lesser success, with theoretical approaches in order to reconstruct and interpret the various roles that lithic technology has played in past societies. The purpose of this session is to compare, contrast, and, if possible, confront these different methodologies, and in particular the theoretical constructs that underpin them. We hope to assemble together researchers working in various parts of the world in order to show how different datasets can be analyzed using the same methodologies and theoretical approaches. We also expect to have examples of similar datasets (e.g. biface or blade technologies) that are analyzed using different methods and theories. Our intent is to show how lithic methodology and theory is expanding and diversifying on a global scale while at the same time identifying common threads that can allow researchers from diverse research backgrounds to speak a common lithic language, or at the very least translate their research into something that is mutually understandable and useful.
Keywords:
lithic analysis, theory, methodology
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no

Organisers

Main organiser:
Mr Adrian Louis Burke (Canada) 1
Co-organisers:
Dr Julien Riel-Salvatore (Italy) 1
Affiliations:
1. Université de Montréal