Diagnostic flake analysis is based on the concept that distinct flintknapping techniques produce distinctive flakes. Seen in this light, the information potential of flakes is enormous. Unfortunately, this information is virtually lost in analyses based upon size-grading a flake assemblage or separating flakes statistically based on a few "key" attributes. The intent of this study is to provide and apply a well-integrated analytical approach based upon the diagnostic flake concept.In order to integrate the static lithic artifacts to the dynamic behavior that produced them, a generalized flow chart model of the knapping event is developed. The flow chart model emphasizes the debitage produced during knapping, rather than finished lithic tools. The flow chart model is described in detail, and the terms"technology", "strategy", and "techniques" are defined and contrasted.A total of 30 reduction experiments were conducted in the course of this study, producing an estimated 27,000 flakes and flake fragments. Based on this sample and previous work conducted by Flenniken (n. d. ) and others, nine diagnostic flake types and three significant flake attributes are defined.An ideal methodology for a lithic analysis is developed. This ideal methodology includes: 1) assessing the types of raw materials present on a site; 2) reconstructing the technology based on negative-flake scars on finished tools; 3) flake refitting; 4) classifying flakes into the diagnostic flake categories nonstatistically and polythetically, with special emphasis placed on recognizing previously unidentified diagnostic flake types; 5) developing a flow chart model of reconstructed prehistoric technology; and 6) summarizing the flow chart i n verbal form.The methodology is applied to the Middle and Late Woodland components of the stratified All Seasons site located in central Indiana. Analysis of the Middle Woodland assemblage results in the recognition and definition of conical core flake blanks.The methodology is applied to a blind test manufactured by Donald Cochran to assess bias that may have been introduced into the flake type definitions by using debitage produced only by the author. Cochran's behavior is accurately reconstructed.Finally, the results of the study are discussed, and the study's strengths and weaknesses are determined. Diagnostic flake analysis is found to be a powerful approach that derives an optimal amount of high-quality information from a chipped stone assemblage. / Department of Anthropology

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The aim of this study is to investigate the ways in which actions involving the construction of funerary mounds facilitated the continuity of Beaker and Bronze Age society in South-West Britain by creating and renewing meaningful traditions of knowledge. Following a brief introduction (Chapter 1) which reviews the character and contents of the study, the second chapter considers some theoretical issues arising from the practice of interpretative archaeology, and concludes with a discussion of death rituals and their archaeological appropriation. Chapter 3 is a critical review of the modem tradition of barrow study, and proposes an alternative perspective pursued in later chapters. Chapter 4 involves an examination of the environmental and social context surrounding later third and second millennium burial practices in the South-West in terms of its implications for community regionalization, social structure, and funerary function. Chapter 5 contains an overview of the funerary sites, a discussion of the analysis employed in their examination, and a contextual history of Bronze Age funerary practices, integrating the results into a general view of social and ritual development. Chapter 6 elaborates upon Beaker/Bronze Age traditions of knowledge by detailing the form and content of the meaningful taxonomies which structured perception, and how such taxonomies were forwarded and reproduced through tomb construction and related ritual actions. The chapter concludes by considering the results of the analysis against the current approaches to the subject. The picture of Bronze Age ceremonial burial which emerges differs from that produced by traditional and current perspectives, in that local contingent circumstances and cosmological constructs are shown to have been of equal importance to both power relations and large scale economic structures in influencing site location, monument appearance, material culture use, and funerary action. Appendices and tables summarise individual site histories and supporting data.

Elsdon Best�s 1925 work Maori Agriculture has been influential in New Zealand archaeology impacting on the terminology and assumed functions applied to so called �horticultural� implements retrieved in excavations, as well as those in museums and private collections. This thesis critically examines Best�s horticultural tool classification and the decisions he made with regards to tool function. Ethnographic accounts are investigated in an effort to understand how and why Best selected the terms and functions that he did. The literature review reveals anomalies in the conclusions that Best drew and the morphology of the tools that he described, highlighting the lack of order and confusion surrounding horticultural tool function, terminology and morphology, and prompting a much needed reassessment of horticultural implements. A study of artefacts from New Zealand museums was undertaken with the aim of generating two typologies for so called �horticultural� tools. The artefacts are classified to specific types using specified attributes, and following the classification process, are investigated for metric and non-metric variables that are indicative of the tool�s function. Graphical and basic statistical analyses revealed largely unimodal distributions for the metric attributes recorded for each tool type. Non-metric qualities also displayed a uniformity to their occurrence within the individual types. The data for each type is discussed with regards to tool function, combining the results of the attribute analyses with comparable tool morphologies from other Pacific cultures. The distribution of tool types in prehistoric New Zealand is also investigated in an effort to elucidate tool function. This investigation highlights the artefacts as earth-working implements, disestablishing the restricted horticultural context which for so long has been associated with such tools.

This thesis is using a framework to analyse the process of transition from foraging to farming in northeast China. Tool complexes analysis is the particular method used to retreive prehistoric economies. Based on the result of these case studies about prehistoric economies in northeast China, this thesis attemp to apply the availability model of transition to farming in northern Europe, proposed by Zvelebil and Rowley-Convy, in the new area northeast China. The result of this research has implicated that the transition to farming in prehistory is the result of the interaction between human societies and environment. among many factors in this interaction, the motivation that prehistoric societies choosing agriculture economy to meet social, political and economic needs would have to be the major one leading to the transition occurred.

Dissertation--Stockholms universitet, 2007.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1990. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [614]-688).

Univ., Diss. 2003--Göteborg, 2003.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Glasgow, 1994. / Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow, 1994. Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.

Based on Ph. D. Thesis--University of Southampton, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.