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New Perspectives on Old Stones pp 295–309Cite as

The Future of Lithic Analysis in Palaeolithic Archaeology: A View from the Old World

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Abstract

Archaeology has to rise to the challenge of projecting itself, accommodating new relationships with disciplines such as evolutionary psychology and anthropology, primatology and genetics. This task requires a reorganisation of approach, so that archaeology does not seem to take purely minimalist views, based simply on the current record of preserved finds. Early archaeology in the Old World divides overall into the dynamics of big evolutionary outlines, and scenarios of local detail. Both are equally important in building a record. The first is more subject to major changes of perspective, and the second offers more continuity in its analytical techniques. The chapter explores recent developments in Palaeolithic archaeology as hints of changes to come.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Stephen Lycett and Parth Chauhan for their encouragement in writing this piece, and also for the enthusiasm and commitment which they bring to Palaeolithic studies, and which many other contributors will have appreciated. I made a conscious decision in writing to take note and learn from the directions marked out by individual contributors, but not to comment on them – which I could not have done better than the editors do in their introduction. My generation was greatly privileged to know both David Clarke and Glynn Isaac. At Glynn’s suggestion (during his sabbatical in Cambridge) I went to have a long and rewarding chat with David Clarke just weeks before he was taken ill and died – about our very topic, directions forward in the Palaeolithic.

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  1. British Academy Centenary Research Project, SACE, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3BX, UK

    John A. J. Gowlett

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  1. John A. J. Gowlett
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Archaeology, Classics &, Egyptology, University of Liverpool, Brownlow Street, London, L693BX, United Kingdom

    Stephen Lycett

  2. CRAFT Stone Age Institute, Indiana University, W. Dittemore Road 1392, Gosport, 47433-9531, USA

    Parth Chauhan

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Gowlett, J.A.J. (2010). The Future of Lithic Analysis in Palaeolithic Archaeology: A View from the Old World. In: Lycett, S., Chauhan, P. (eds) New Perspectives on Old Stones. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6861-6_13

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