Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

From Stone to Metal: the Dynamics of Technological Change in the Decline of Chipped Stone Tool Production. A Case Study from the Southern Levant (5th–1st Millennia BCE)

  • Published:
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The shift from stone to metal has been considered one of the main technological transformations in the history of humankind. In order to observe the dynamics underlying the disappearance of chipped stone tools and their replacement with metal implements, we adopt an approach which combines two different levels of analysis. At the first, by focusing on the Southern Levant as a case study, we consider the developmental forces internal to the technology itself and the conditions favorable to the invention, spread, continuation, or disappearance of technical traits. At the second, by considering specific historical scenarios, we test the existence of general principles which guide technological changes. Flint knapping and metallurgy, and notably their relationship, are particularly appropriate to observe regularities which operate at different scales, the first one within the developmental lines of objects, techniques and technologies, and the second one within the conditions of actualization of technological facts. On the one hand, following the “rules” of technical tendencies, a techno-logic perspective allows observation of how metal cutting objects, overcoming the “limits” of knapping technology, represent the logical development of flint tools. On the other hand, the analysis of the socioeconomic contexts in which chipped stone tools were produced permits identification of regularities which conditioned changes in lithic production systems, their decline, and the final replacement with metal tools.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The invention of metallurgy is not the subject of this paper. However, it is important to stress that their cutting-edge properties were not discovered with the first manipulation of metals, mainly used for the production of beads and pendants (e.g., Birch et al.2013), but were exploited only after the development of smelting, melting, and casting. At the beginning of its history, metallurgy was not comparable with the lithic system, and their “antagonism” emerged only after a functional convergence.

  2. Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age cutting tools were usually made of pure copper (e.g., Shalev 1991, 1994; but for arsenic/antimony alloyed-copper tools, see, e.g., Maddin et al.2003; Nadmar et al.2004); bronze (copper/tin) tools appeared at the end the 3rd millennium BCE (e.g., Richard 2006) and became dominant during the Middle Bronze Age (e.g., Philip 1991; Philip et al. 2003; Shalev 2009); iron/steel substituted the bronze implements at the beginning of the Iron Age (e.g., Bauvais 2008; Stech-Wheeler et al.1981; Yahalom-Mack and Eliyahu-Behar 2015).

  3. During the entire EBA, copper was used also to produce other objects not directly comparable with flint “equivalents” such as, for example, the daggers, swords, spearheads, and battle axes (e.g., Hestrin and Tadmor 1963; Maddin et al.2003; Miron 1992)

  4. Most of the metal objects dated to the Bronze Age derives from tombs (e.g., Philip 1988), and only a small percentage of items, usually awls and some axes, comes from villages and cities.

  5. For example, in Europe, at the Grand Pressigny, blades produced by indirect percussion can reach 40 cm in length (Pelegrin 2002), at Etiolles, some blades are 60 cm long (Olive et al.2005), or in Varna necropolis, the longest blade produced by pressure reaches 43.3 cm (Manolakakis 2002).

References

  • Akrich, M. (1989). La construction d’un système socio-technique. Esquisse pour une anthropologie des techniques. Anthropologie des techniques, 13(2), 31–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allard, P., & Burnez-Lanotte, L. (Eds.). (2012). Productions domestiques versus spécialisées au Néolithique et au Chalcolithique, finalités techniques et fonctions sociales: question d’échelle. Paris: Bulletin de La Société Préhistorique Française.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, P. C., Chabot, J., & van Gijn, A. L. (2004). The functional riddle of “glossy” Canaanean blades and the near eastern threshing sledge. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 17(1), 87–130.

    Google Scholar 

  • Astruc, L. (Ed.). (2005). Au-delà de la notion de technologie expédiente: outillages lithiques et osseux au Néolithique. Nanterre: Cahiers des thèmes transversaux d’ArScAn.

    Google Scholar 

  • Astruc, L., Bon, F., Léa, V., Milcent, P. Y., & Philbert, S. (Eds.). (2006). Normes techniques et pratiques sociales: de la simplicité des outillages pré- et protohistoriques. Antibes: APDCA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailly, M. (2009). Stone tools and copper tools in Late Neolithic Western Europe: what relationship, what substitution? From common sense to research agenda. In P. Jockey (Ed.), Interdisciplinary studies on Mediterranean ancient marble and stone (pp. 865–877). Paris: Miasonneuve & Larose.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bamforth, D. B. (1986). Technological efficiency and tool curation. American Antiquity, 51, 38–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Adon, P. (1980). The cave of the treasure. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barkai, R. (1999). Resharpening and recycling of flint bifacial tools from the Southern Levant Neolithic and Chalcolithic. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 65, 305–318.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barkai, R. (2005). Flint and stone axes as cultural markers: socio-economic changes as reflected in Holocene flint tool industries of southern Levant. Berlin: Ex Oriente.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barkai, R. (2006). The earliest tree fellers: on axes, people and ideology during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods in Israel. Jerusalem and the Land of Israel, 3, 5–21 (in Hebrew).

    Google Scholar 

  • Barton, C. M., & Clark, G. A. (1997). Rediscovering Darwin: evolutionary theory in archaeological explanations. Arlington: American Anthropological Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Basalla, G. (1998). The evolution of technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauvais, S. (2008). Prolégomènes à une histoire de la métallurgie du fer au Levant Sud. Bulletin du Centre de Recherche français à Jérusalem 19. http://bcrfj.revue.org/5996; Accessed 12 March 2017.

  • Benoit, P., Milik, J. T., & de Vaux, R. (1961). La grotte de Mabbaât. Discoveries in the Judean Desert II. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bensaude-Vincent, B. (1998). Eloge du mixte. Matériaux nouveaux et philosophie ancienne. Paris: Hachette.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bentley, R. A., & Shennan, S. J. (2003). Cultural transmission and stochastic network growth. American Antiquity, 68, 459–485.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bentley, R. A., Hahn, M. W., & Shennan, S. J. (2004). Random drift and culture change. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 271, 1443–1450.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bijker, W. E., Hughies, T. C., & Pinch, T. (1989). The social construction of technological systems. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binder, D., & Perlès, C. (1990). Stratégies de gestion des outillages lithiques au Néolithique. Paléo, 2, 257–283.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binford, R. L. (1979). Organization and formation process: looking at curated technologies. Journal of Anthropological Research, 35(3), 255–273.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birch, T., Rehren, T., & Pernicka, E. (2013). The metallic finds from Catalhöyük: a review and preliminary new work. In I. Hodder (Ed.), Substantive technologies at Catalhöyük: reports from 2000–2008 seasons (pp. 307–318). London: British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bleed, P. (1986). The optimal design of hunting weapons: maintainability or reliability. American Antiquity, 5, 737–747.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boëda, E. (1988). De la surface au volume: analyse des conceptions des débitages Levallois et laminaire. In C. Farizy (Ed.), Paléolithique moyen récent et Paléolithique supérieur ancien en Europe (pp. 966–968). Nemours: APRAIF.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boëda, E. (1997). Technogenèse des systèmes de production lithique au Paléolithique inférieur et moyen en Europe occidentale et au Proche -Orient. Habilitation dissertation. Nanterre: Université de Paris X- Nanterre.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boëda, E. (2001). Détermination des unités techno-fonctionnelles de pièces bifaciales provenant de la couche acheuléenne C’3 base du site de Barbas. In D. Cliquet (Ed.), Les industries à outils bifaciaux du Paléolithique moyen d’Europe occidentale (pp. 51–75). Liège: ERAUL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boëda, E. (2005). Paléo-technologie ou anthropologie des techniques? Arob@se, 1, 46–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boëda, E. (2013). Techno-logique & technologie: une paléo-histoire des objets lithiques tranchants. @rchéo-éditions.com.

  • Boëda, E., Hou, Y. M., Forestier, H., Sarel, J., & Wang, H. M. (2013). Levallois and non-Levallois blade production at Shuidonggou in Ningxia, North China. Quaternary International, 295, 191–203.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonilauri, S. (2010). Les outils du Paléolithique moyen: une mémoire technique oubliée? Approche techno-fonctionnelle appliquée à un assemblage lithique de conception Levallois provenant du site d’Umm el Tlel (Syrie centrale). Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Nanterre: Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre- La Défense.

  • Braun, E. & Roux, V (Eds.) (2013). The transition Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age in the Southern Levant. Paléorient 39(1).

  • Bresnahan, T. (1987). Competition and collusion in the American automobile oligopoly: the 1955 price war. Journal of Industrial Economics, 35, 437–455.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brumfiel, E. M., & Earle, K. (Eds.). (1987). Specialization, exchange and complex societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brun, P., Averbouh, A., Karlin, C., Méry, S., & de Miroschedji, P. (2006). Les liens entre la complexité des sociétés traditionnelles et le niveau de spécialisation artisanale: bilan et perspective. In A. Averbouh, P. Brun, C. Karlin, S. Méry, & P. de Miroschedji (Eds.), Spécialisation des taches et société (pp. 325–347). Paris: Maison des sciences de l’homme.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burke, S. J. (2014). The Southern Levant (Transjordan) during the Middle Bronze Age. In M. L. Steiner & A. E. Killebrew (Eds.), The archaeology of the Levant (pp. 526–541). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Callon, M. (1989). Réseaux technico-économiques et irréversibilité. In R. Boyer, B. Chavanne, & O. Godard (Eds.), Figures d’irréversibilité en économie (pp. 195–230). Paris: Editions EHESS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caneva, I. (1993). From Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age III at Arslantepe: a lithic perspective. In M. Frangipane, H. Hauptmann, M. Liverani, P. Matthiae, & M. Mellink (Eds.), Between rivers and over the mountains: Archaeologica anatolica et mesopotamica Alba Palmieri dedicata (pp. 319–339). Roma: Università La Sapienza di Roma.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chambon, A. (1984). Tell el-Far’ah I: l’Age du Fer. Paris: ERC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Château, J.-Y. (2010). La technique: genèse et concrétisation des objets techniques dans Du mode d’existence des objets techniques de Gilbert Simondon. Philopsis. http://www.philopsis.fr/IMG/pdf_Technique-Simondon-Chateau.pdf. Accessed 4 July 2017.

  • Chevrier, B. (2012). Les assemblages à pièces bifaciales au Pléistocène inférieur et moyen ancien en Afrique de l’Est et au Proche Orient. Nouvelle approche du phénomène bifacial appliquée aux problématiques de migration, de diffusion et d’évolution locale. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Nanterre: Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre- La Défense.

  • Childe, V. G. (1951). Man makes himself: man’s progress through the ages. New York: New American Library.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J., & Perry, W. J. (1990). Craft specialization and cultural complexity. Research in Economic Anthropology, 12, 289–346.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cobb, C. R. (Ed.). (2003). Stone tool traditions in the Contact Era. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collin, M., & Latour, B. (1981). Unscrewing the big Leviathan; or how actors macrostructure reality, and how sociologists help them to do so. In K. D. Knorr & A. Cicourel (Eds.), Advances in social theory and methodology: toward an integration of micro- and macro- sociologies (pp. 277–303). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coqueugniot, E. (1991). L’outillage de pierre taillée au Bronze Récent. Ras Shamra 1978-1988. In M. Yon (Ed.), Ras Shamra-Ougarit VI: arts et industries de la pierre (pp. 127–204). Paris: ERC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coqueugniot, E. (2006). Mari, Larsa, Ugarit et les outillages en silex de l’Age du Bronze. Réflexions sur le rôle et le statut du travail du silex aux IIIe et IIe millénaire. In P. Butterlin (Ed.), Les espaces syro-mésopotamiens, dimensions de l’expérience humaine au Proche-Orient ancien, volume d’hommage offert à Jean-Claude Margueron (pp. 323–338) SUBARTU 17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coqueugniot, E. (2010). Ras Shamra-Ougarit. Un atelier de travail du silex dans une maison du secteur « Grand Rue » (campagne 2005-2007). Syria, 87, 37–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Costin, L. (1991). Craft specialization: issues in defining, documenting and explaining the organization of production. Archaeological Method and Theory, 3, 1–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Costin, L. (2001). Craft production system. In G. M. Feinman, T. D. Price, & T. Douglas (Eds.), Archaeology at the millennium: a sourcebook (pp. 273–327). New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coutier, L. (1952). Notes sur les pierres à feu. Bulletin de la Société préhistorique de France, 49(7), 327–328.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cresswell, R. (1994). La nature cyclique des relations entre la technique et le social. Approche technologique de la chaîne opératoire. In B. Latour & P. Lemonnier (Eds.), De la préhistoire aux missiles balistiques: l’intelligence sociale des techniques (pp. 275–289). Paris: La Découverte.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cresswell, R. (1996). Prométhée ou Pandore? Propos de technologie culturelle. Paris: Kimé.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cresswell, R. (2003). Geste technique, fait social total. Le technique est-il dans le social ou face à lui? Technique & Culture, 40. http://journals.openedition.org/tc/1576; https://doi.org/10.4000/tc.1576. Accessed 13 Jan 2017.

  • Da Costa, A. (2017). Rupture technique et dynamiques d’occupation au cours de l’Holocène moyen au Brésil. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Nanterre: Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre- La Défense.

  • Davidzon, A., & Gilead, I. (2009). The Chalcolithic workshop at Beit Eshel: preliminary refitting studies and possible socio-economic implications. In S. A. Rosen & V. Roux (Eds.), Techniques and people: anthropological perspectives on technology in the archaeology of the proto- historic and early historic periods in the Southern Levant (pp. 25–41). Paris: De Boccard.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Miroschedji, P. (1986). Céramique et mouvement de population: le cas de la Palestine au IIIe millénaire. In M. T. Barrelet & J. Gardin (Eds.), A propos des interprétations archéologiques de la poterie: questions ouvertes (pp. 10–46). Paris: ERC.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Miroschedji, P. (2014). The Southern Levant (Cisjordan) during the Early Bronze Age. In M. L. Steiner & A. E. Killebrew (Eds.), The archaeology of the Levant (pp. 357–379). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Weyer, L. (2016). Systèmes techniques et variabilité fonctionnelle des industries lithiques anciennes. Universaux et variabilité en Afrique de l’Est et en Europe. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Nanterre: Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre- La Défense.

  • Deforge, Y. (1985). Technologie et génétique de l’objet industriel. Paris: Maloine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dosi, G. (1982). Technological paradigms and technological trajectories. A suggested interpretation of the determinants and directions of technical change. Research Policy, 11, 147–162.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douglas, N. (1996). The political economy of U.S. automobile protection. In A. O. Krueger (Ed.), The political economy of American trade policy (pp. 133–196). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durand, B. (2009). La crise pétrolière. Paris: EDP Science.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eckermann, E. (2001). World history of the automobile. New York: SEA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edens, C. (1999). The chipped stone industry at Hacinebi: technological styles and social identity. Paléorient, 25(1), 23–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edmonds, M. (1995). Stone tools and society. Working stone in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain. London: Batsford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eerkens, J. W., & Lipo, C. P. (2005). Cultural transmission, copying errors, and the generation of variation in material culture and the archaeological record. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 24, 316–334.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eitan, A. (1994). Rare sword of the Israelite period found at Vered Jericho. Israel Museum Journal, 12, 61–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • El Mor, Z., & Pernot, M. (2011). Middle Bronze Age metallurgy in the Levant: evidence from the weapons of Byblos. Journal of Archaeological Science, 38, 2613–2624.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellul, J. (1977). Le système technique. Paris: Calmann-Lévy.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eriksen, B. V. (Ed.). (2010). Lithic technology in metal using societies. Højbjerg: Aarhus University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feldman, M. W., Aoki, K., & Kumm, J. (1996). Individual versus social learning: evolutionary analysis in a fluctuating environment. Anthropological Science, 104, 209–231.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, P. M. (Ed.). (2008). Tell Abu Al-Kharaz in the Jordan Valley: the Early Bronze Age. Wien: Austrian Academy of Science Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forbes, R. J. (1971). Studies in ancient technologies (Vol. VIII, 2nd ed.). Leiden: E.J. Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford, H. S., Bradley, R., Hawkes, J., & Fisher, P. (1984). Flint-working in the metal age. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 3, 157–173.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frick, J. A., & Herkert, K. (2014). Lithic technology and logic of technicity. Meitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte, 23, 129–172.

    Google Scholar 

  • Futato, E. M. (1996). Early Bronze Age III Canaanean blade/scraper cores from Tell Halif, Israel. In J. D. Seger (Ed.), Retrieving the past. Essays on archaeological research and methodology in honor of Gus W. Van Breek (pp. 61–74). Cobb Institute of Archaeology: Starkville.

  • Gallay, A. (1986). L’archéologie demain. Paris: Belfond.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallay, A. (2011). Une ethnoarchéologie théorique. Paris: Errance.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gelbert, A. (2003). Traditions céramiques et emprunts techniques dans la vallée du fleuve Sénégal. Paris: Editions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme.

    Google Scholar 

  • Genz, H. (2000). The organization of Early Bronze Age metalworking in the Southern Levant. Paléorient, 26(1), 55–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Georgano, G. N. (1990). Cars: early and vintage, 1886–1930. London: Grange Universal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gernez, G. (2007). L’armement en métal au Proche et Moyen Orient: des origines à 1750 Av. J.-C. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Paris: Université de Paris I Panthéon- Sorbonne.

  • Gernez, G. (2008). La question des mécanismes évolutifs des productions métallurgiques: l’exemple des armes au Proche-Orient. In C. Oberweiller, B. Quilliec, & V. Verardi (Eds.), La métallurgie de transformation des alliages cuivreux: approches méthodologiques et applications archéologiques récentes (pp. 133–138). Nanterre: Cahiers des thèmes transversaux d’ArScAn.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gersht, D. (2006). The flint assemblage from area K. In I. Finkelstein, D. Ussishkin, & B. Halpern (Eds.), Megiddo IV: the 1998–2002 seasons (pp. 343–349). Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilead, I. (1988). The Chalcolithic period in the Levant. Journal of World Prehistory, 2(4), 397–443.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilead, I., Marder, O., Khalaily, H., Fabian, P., Abadi, Y., & Yisrael, Y. (2004). The Beit Eshel Chalcolithic flint workshop in Beer Sheva: a preliminary report. Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society, 34, 245–263.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilead, I., Davidzon, A., & Vardi, J. (2010). The Ghassulian sickle blade workshop of Beit Eshel, Beer Sheva, Israel. In B. V. Eriksen (Ed.), Lithic technology in metal using society (pp. 221–230). Højbjerg: Aarhus University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gille, B. (Ed.). (1978). Histoire des techniques. Paris: Gallimard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Godelier, M. (2000). Aux sources de l’anthropologie économique. Socio-Anthropologie 7. http://socio-anthropologie.revues.org/98. Accessed 4 July 2018.

  • Golden, J. (2009). New light on the development of Chalcolithic metal technology in the Southern Levant. Journal of World Prehistory, 22, 283–300.

    Google Scholar 

  • Golden, J. (2010). Dawn of the metal age: technology and society during the Levantine Chalcolithic. London: Equinox.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goren, Y. (2008). The location of specialized copper production by the lost wax technique in the Chalcolithic Southern Levant. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, 23, 374–397.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gošić, M. (2014). Metallurgy, magic and social identities in the Ghassulian culture of the Southern Levant (ca. 4500-4000 BC). Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Beersheba: Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

  • Gosselain, O. P. (2000). Materializing identities: an African perspective. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 7, 187–217.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gosselain, O. P. (2008). Mother Bella was not Bella. Inherited and transformed traditions in southwestern Niger. In M. Stark, B. Bower, & L. Horne (Eds.), Cultural transmission and material culture. Breaking down boundaries (pp. 150–177). Tucson: Arizona University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gosselain, O. P. (2010). De l’art d’accommoder les pâtes: Espaces sociaux et échelles d’analyse au Niger. In C. Manen, F. Convertini, D. Binder, & I. Sénepart (Eds.), Premières sociétés paysannes de la Méditerranée orientale (pp. 249–263). Paris: Société Préhistorique Française.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenfield, H. (2013). The fall of the house of flint’: a zooarchaeological perspective on the decline of chipped stone tools from butchering animals in the Bronze and Iron Ages of the Southern Levant. Lithic Technology, 38(3), 161–178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guchet, X. (2005). Les sens de l’évolution technique. Paris: Editions Léo Scheer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guchet, X. (2008). Evolution technique et objectivité technique chez Loroi-Gourhan et Simondon. Appareil, 2. http://journals.openedition.org/appareil/580. Accessed 13 Dec 2017.

  • Gurova, M. (2013). Tribulum inserts in ethnographic and archaeological perspective: case studies from Bulgaria and Israel. Lithic Technology, 38(3), 179–201.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartenberger, B., & Runnels, C. (2001). The organization of flaked stone production at Bronze Age Lerna. The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 70(3), 255–283.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartenberger, B., Rosen, S. A., & Matney, T. (2000). The Early Bronze Age blade workshop at Titriş Höyük: lithic specialization in an urban context. Near Eastern Archaeology, 63(1), 51–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hauptman, A., & Pernicka, E. (Eds.). (1999). The beginnings of metallurgy. Bochum: Deutschen Bergbau-Museum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hauptman, A., Khalil, L., & Schmitt-Strecker, S. (2009). Evidence of Late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age I copper production from Timna ores at Tall al-Magass, ‘Aqaba. In L. Khalil & K. Schmidt (Eds.), Prehistoric ‘Aqaba (pp. 295–304). Rahden: Mari Leidorf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayden, B., Franco, N., & Spafford, J. (1996). Evaluating lithic strategies and design criteria. In G. Oddel (Ed.), Theoretical insights into human prehistory (pp. 9–45). New York: Plenum Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hermon, S. (2008). Socio aspect of Chalcolithic (4500–3500 BCE) societies in Southern Levant: a lithic perspective. Oxford: BAR International Series.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heskel, D. L. (1983). A model of the adoption of metallurgy in the ancient Middle East. Current Anthropology, 24, 362–366.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hestrin, R., & Tadmor, M. (1963). A hoard of tools and weapons from Kfar Monash. Israel Exploration Journal, 13, 265–288.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirth, K. (Ed.). (2009). Housework: craft production and domestic economy in ancient Mesoamerica. Arlington: American Anthropological Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Högberg, A. (2009). Lithic in the Scandinavian Bronze Age. Sociotechnical change and persistence. Oxford: BAR International Series.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, D. L. (1992). Chipped-stone working craftsman, Hierakonopolis and the rise of civilization in Egypt. In R. F. Friedman & B. Adams (Eds.), The followers of Horus: studies dedicated to Michael Allen Hoffman, 1944–1990 (pp. 37–44). Oxford: Oxbow Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hounshell, D. (1984). From the American system to the mass production, 1800–1932: the development of manufacturing technologies in the United States. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Humphrey, J. (2004). Iron Age flint utilization in central and southern Britain: the last ‘Stone Age?’ An integrated theoretical end empirical study. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Leicester: University of Leicester.

  • Ilan, O., & Sebbane, M. (1989). Copper metallurgy, trade, and the urbanization of southern Canaan in the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age. In P. de Miroschedji (Ed.), L’ubanisation de la Palestine à l’Age du Bronze Ancien: bilan et perspectives des recherches actuelles (pp. 139–162). Oxford: BAR International Series.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inizan, M.-L., Reduron, M., Roche, H., & Tixier, J. (1995). Technologie de la pierre taillée. Meudon: CREP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeske, R. L. (1992). Energetic efficiency and lithic technology: an Upper Mississippian example. American Antiquity, 57(3), 467–481.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kameda, T., & Nakanishi, D. (2002). Cost-benefit analysis of social/cultural learning in a nonstationary uncertain environment: an evolutionary simulation and an experiment with human subjects. Evolution and Human Behavior, 23, 242–260.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kardulias, P. N. (2003). Stone in the age of bronze: lithics from Bronze Age contexts in Greece and Iran. In P. N. Kardulias & R. W. Yerkes (Eds.), Written in stone: the multiple dimensions of lithic analysis (pp. 113–124). Lenham: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karlin, C., Bodu, P., & Pelegrin, J. (1991). Processus techniques et chaînes opératoires. Comment les préhistoriens s’approprient un concept élaboré par les ethnologues. In H. Balfet (Ed.), Observer l’action technique. Des chaînes opératoires, pour quoi faire ? (pp. 101–117). Paris: Editions du CNRS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kay, J. H. (1998). Asphalt nation: how the automobile took over America, and how we can take it back. Oakland: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kent, B. C. (1983). More on gunflints. Historical Archaeology, 17(2), 27–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khalil, L.A.H. (1980). The composition and technology of copper artifacts from Jericho and some related sites. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. London: University of London.

  • Klimscha, F. (2011). Long-range contacts in the Late Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant. Excavations at Tell Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan and Tall al-Magrass near Aqaba, Jordan. In J. Mynárova (Ed.), Egypt and the Near East- the Crossroads (pp. 177–209). Prague: Charles University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lafitte, J. (1972). Réflexions sur la science des machines. Paris: Vrin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B. (1992). Technology is society made durable. In J. Law (Ed.), Sociology of monster: essays on power, technology and domination (pp. 103–130). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Le Roux, C. T. (1999). L’outillage de pierre polie en métadolérite du type A. Les ateliers de Plussulien (Côte d’Armor): Production et diffusion au Néolithique dans la France de l’ouest et au-delà. Rennes: Université de Rennes I.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lech, J., Piotrowska, D., & Werra, D. H. (2015). Between economy and symbol: flint in the Bronze Age in eastern central Europe. In P. Suchowska-Ducke, S. Scott Reiter, & H. Ehrhardt (Eds.), Forging identities: the mobility of culture in Bronze Age Europe (pp. 221–229). Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lechtman, H. (1996). Arsenic bronze: dirty copper or chosen alloy? A view from the Americans. Journal of Field Archaeology, 23, 477–514.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemonnier, P. (1976). La description des chaînes opératoires: contribution à l’analyse des systèmes techniques. Techniques & Cultures, 1, 100–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemonnier, P. (Ed.). (1993). Technological choices: transformations in material culture since the Neolithic. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemonnier, P. (2010). L’étude des systèmes techniques: une urgence en technologie culturelle. Technique & Culture, 54-55, 46–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lepot, M. (1993). Approche techno-fonctionnelle de l’outillage lithique moustérien : essai de classification des parties actives en termes d’efficacité techniques. Application à la couche M2e sagittale du Grand Abri de la Ferrassie (fouille Henri Delporte). Unpublished Master dissertation. Nanterre: Université de Paris X- Nanterre.

  • Leroi-Gourhan, A. (1943). Evolution et technique. L’homme et la matière. Paris: Albin Michel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leroi-Gourhan, A. (1964). Le geste et la parole. I, technique et langage. Paris: Albin Michel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levy, T. E. (1995). Cult, metallurgy and ranked societies: the Chalcolithic period (ca. 4500-3500 BCE). In T. E. Levy (Ed.), The archaeology of society in the Holy Land (pp. 226–245). London: Leicester University press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levy, T. E., & Shalev, S. (1989). Prehistoric metalworking in the Southern Levant: archaeometallurgical and social perspectives. World Archaeology, 20(3), 352–372.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levy, T. E., Russell, B., Adams, R. B., Hauptmann, A., Prage, M., Schmitt-Strecker, S., & Najjar, M. (2002). Early Bronze Age metallurgy: a newly discovered copper manufactory in southern Jordan. Antiquity, 76, 425–437.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, Y. (2011). Etude technologique de l’industrie lithique du site de Guanyindong dans la province de Guizhou, sud-ouest de la Chine. @rcéo-éditions.com.

  • Lipo, C. P., O’Brien, M. J., Collard, M., & Shennan, S. J. (Eds.). (2006). Mapping our ancestors: phylogenetic approaches in anthropology and prehistory. Brunswick: Aldine Transition.

    Google Scholar 

  • Littauer, M. A., & Crouwel, J. H. (1990). Ceremonial threshing in the ancient near east. Iraq, 52, 19–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lourdeau, A. (2010). Le technocomplexe Itaparica. Définition techno-fonctionelle des industries à pièces façonnées unifacialement à une face plane dans le centre et le nord-est du Brésil pendant la transition Pléistocène-Holocène et l’Holocène ancien. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Nanterre: Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre- la Défense.

  • Lyman, R. L., & O’Brien, M. J. (1998). The goals of evolutionary archaeology: history and explanation. Current Anthropology, 39, 615–662.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyman, R. L., & O’Brien, M. J. (2000). Measuring and explaining change in artifact variation with clade-diversity diagrams. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 19, 39–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mackenzie, D., & Wajcman, J. (1985). The social shaping of technology. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maddin, R., Muhly, J. D., & Stech, T. (2003). Metallurgical studies on copper artifacts from Bâb Edh-Dhrâ. In W. E. Rast & R. T. Schaub (Eds.), Bâb Edh-Dhrâ’: Excavations at the town site, 1977–1981 excavations (pp. 513–521). Winnona Lake: Eisenbrauns.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manclossi, F. (2016). De la pierre aux métaux: dynamiques des changements techniques dans les industries lithiques au Levant Sud, IV ème- I ermillénaire av. J.-C. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Nantere: Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre- La Défense ; Beersehava: Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

  • Manclossi, F., & Rosen, S. A. (2019a). The importance of being ad hoc: patterns and implications of expedient lithic production in the Bronze Age in Israel. In R. Horowitzn & G. S. McCall (Eds.), Global perspectives on lithic technology in complex societies. Utah: University Press of Colorado.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manclossi, F., & Rosen, S. A. (2019b). Dynamics of change in flint sickles of the age of metals: new insights from a technological approach. Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, 7(1).

  • Manclossi, F., Rosen, S. A., & de Miroschedji, P. (2016). The Canaanean blades from Tel Yarmuth, Israel: a technological analysis. Paléorient, 42(1), 49–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manclossi, F., Rosen, S. A., & Lehmann, G. (2018). The decline and disappearance of chipped-stone tools: new insights from Qubur al-Walaydah, a Late Bronze-Iron Age site in Israel. Lithic Technology, 43(2), 93–124.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manolakakis, L. (2002). The function of the big blades from Varna necropolis. Archaeologiâ, 43(3), 5–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marder, O., Braun, E., & Milevski, I. (1995). The flint assemblage of Horvat ‘Illit. Some technical and economic considerations.’. Atiqot, 27, 63–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marx, L. (1987). Does improved technology mean progress? Technology Review, 90, 32–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • McConaughy, M. (1979). Formal and functional analysis of chipped stone tools from Bâb Edh-Dhrâ. Ann Arbor: University Microfilm.

    Google Scholar 

  • McConaughy, M. (1980). Chipped stone tools from Bâb Edh-Dhrâ. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 240, 53–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • McConaughy, M. (2003). Chipped stone tools from Bâb Edh-Dhrâ. In W. E. Rast & R. T. Schaub (Eds.), Bâb edh-Dhrâ’: excavations at the town site, 1975–1982 (pp. 473–512). Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLaren, A. (2008). Flintworking in the British Late Bronze and Iron Ages: a critical review and statement of research potential. Lithic Technology, 33(2), 141–159.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNutt, P. (1990). The forging of Israel: iron technology, symbolism, and tradition in ancient society. Sheffield: The Almond Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mesoudi, A., & O’Brien, M. J. (2008a). The cultural transmission of Great Basin projectile-point technology I: an experimental simulation. American Antiquity, 73, 3–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mesoudi, A., & O’Brien, M. J. (2008b). The cultural transmission of Great Basin projectile-point technology II: an agent-based computer simulation. American Antiquity, 73, 627–724.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michailidou, A. (2001). Recording quantities of metal in Bronze Age societies in the Aegean and the near east. In A. Michailidou (Ed.), Manufacture and measuring: counting, measuring and recording craft items in early Aegean societies (pp. 85–119). Athens: National Hellenic Research Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milevski, I. (2009). The Copper Age and inequality in the Southern Levant. Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society, 39, 1–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milevski, I. (2011). Early Bronze Age good exchange in the Southern Levant: a Marxist perspective. London: Equinox.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milevski, I. (2013). The exchange of flint tools in the Southern Levant during the Early Bronze Age. Lithic Technology, 38(3), 202–219.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milevski, I., Vardi, J., Gilead, I., Eirikh-Rose, A., Birkenfeld, M., Mienis, H. K., & Horwitz, L. K. (2013). Excavations at Horbat ‘Illit B: a Chalcolithic (Ghassulian) site in the Haeleah Vallay. Journal of Israel Prehistoric Society, 43, 73–147.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miron, E. (1992). Axes and adzes from Canaan. Mainz: Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moorey, P. R. S. (1988). The Chalcolithic hoard from Nahal Mishmar, Israel, in context. World Archaeology, 20, 171–189.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgado Rodríguez, A., Pelegrin, J., Martínez Fernandez, G., & Alfonso Marrero, J. A. (2008). La production de grandes lames dans la péninsule ibérique (IVe-IIIe millénaire). In M.-L. Dias-Meirinho, V. Léa, K. Gernigon, P. Fouéré, F. Briois, & M. Bailly (Eds.), Les industries lithiques taillées des IV eet III emillénaires en Europe occidentale (pp. 309–330). Oxford: Bar International Series.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mozel, I. (1983). A reconstructed sickle from Lachish. Tel Aviv, 10, 182–185.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muhly, J. D. (1982a). How iron technology changed the ancient world and gave the Philistines a military edge. Biblical Archaeological Review, 8(6), 42–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muhly, J. D. (1982b). The nature of trade in the LBA eastern Mediterranean: the organization of metals trade and the role of Cyprus. In J. D. Muhly, R. Maddin, & V. Karageorghis (Eds.), Early metallurgy in Cyprus, 4000–500 BC (pp. 251–266). Nicosia: Pierides Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muhly, J. D. (1985). Sources of tin and the beginning of the Bronze Age. American Journal of Archaeology, 89, 275–291.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nadmar, D., Segal, I., Goren, Y., & Shalev, S. (2004). Chalcolithic copper artifacts. In N. Scheftelowitz & R. Oren (Eds.), Giv’at ha-Oranim. A Chalcolithic site (pp. 70–83). Tel Aviv: Emery and Claire Yass Publications in Archaeology.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Brien, M. J., & Bentley, R. A. (2011). Stimulated variation and cascades: two processes in the evolution of complex technological systems. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 18, 309–335.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Brien, M. J., & Holland, T. D. (1990). Variation, selection and the archaeological record. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 2, 31–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Brien, M. J., & Lyman, R. L. (2000). Evolutionary archaeology: reconstructing and explaining historical lineages. In M. B. Schiffer (Ed.), Social theory in archaeology (pp. 126–142). Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Brien, M. J., & Shennan, S. J. (Eds.). (2010). Innovation in cultural system: contribution from evolutionary anthropology. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olive, M., Pigeot, N., Taborin, Y., & Yvon, J.-M. (2005). Toujours plus longue, une lame à crête exceptionnelle à Étiolles (Essone). Revue Archéologique de Picardie, 22, 25–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oshri, A., & Schick, T. (1998). The lithics. In T. Schick (Ed.), The cave of the warrior. A 4th millennium burial in the Judean desert (pp. 59–62). Israel Antiquities Reports: Jerusalem.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pagli, M. (2013). Variabilité du Moustérien au Proche-Orient. Approche géographique des dynamiques de changement en milieu méditerranéen et en milieu steppique. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Nanterre: Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre- La Défense.

  • Parry, W. J., & Kelly, R. L. (1987). Expedient core technology and sedentism. In J. K. Johnson & C. A. Morrow (Eds.), The organization of core technology (pp. 285–304). Boulder: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pawlik, A. (2004). An Early Bronze Age pocket lighter. In E. A. Walker, F. Wenban-Smith, & F. Healy (Eds.), Lithics in action: papers from the conference lithic studies in the year 2000 (pp. 149–151). Oxford: Oxbow Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pelegrin, J. (1991). Les savoir-faire: une très longue histoire. Terrains, 16, 106–113.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pelegrin, J. (2002). La production des grandes lames de silex du Grand-Pressigny. In J. Guilaine (Ed.), Matériaux, productions, circulations du Néolithique à l’Age du Bronze (pp. 131–148). Paris: Errance.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pelegrin, J. (2007). Réflexion sur la notion de « spécialiste » dans la taille de la pierre au Paléolithique. In R. Desbrosse & A. Thévenin (Eds.), Arts et cultures de la préhistoire, hommage à Henri Delporte (pp. 315–318). Paris: Edition du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pelegrin, J. (2012). New experimental observation for the characterization of pressure blade production technique. In P. M. Desrosiers (Ed.), The emergence of pressure blade making: from origin to modern experimentation (pp. 464–500). New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pelegrin, J., Karlin, C., & Bodu, P. (1988). Chaînes opératoires: un outil pour le préhistorien. In J. Tixier (Ed.), Technologie préhistorique (pp. 55–62). Paris: Editions du CNRS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perlès, C. (1991). Economie des matières premières et économie du débitage: deux concepts opposés? In 25 ans d’études technologiques en préhistoire: bilan et perspectives. Actes des XI erencontres internationales d’archéologie et d’histoire d’Antibes, 18-20 octobre 1990 (pp. 35–46). Juan-les-Pins: APDCA.

  • Perlès, C. (1992). In search of lithic strategies: a cognitive approach to prehistoric chipped stone assemblage. In J.-C. Gardin & C. S. Peebles (Eds.), Representations in archaeology (pp. 223–247). Indiana: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perlès, C. (2009). Les industries lithiques néolithiques: logiques techniques et logiques sociales. In De Méditerranée et D’ailleurs... Mélanges offerts à Jean Guilaine (pp. 557–571). Toulouse: Archives d’Ecologie Préhistorique.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perrot, J. (1952). Les industries lithiques palestiniennes de la fin du Mésolithique à l’Age du Bronze. Israel Exploration Journal, 2, 73–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Philip, G. (1988). Hoards of the Early and Middle Bronze Age in the Levant. World Archaeology, 20(2), 190–208.

    Google Scholar 

  • Philip, G. (1989). Metal weapons of the Early and Middle Bronze Ages in Syria-Palestine. Oxford: BAR International Series.

    Google Scholar 

  • Philip, G. (1991). Tin, arsenic, lead: alloying practices in Syria-Palestine around 2000 BC. Levant, 23, 93–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Philip, G., Glog, P. W., & Dungworth, D. (2003). Copper metallurgy in the Jordan valley from the third to the first millennia BC. Chemical, metallographic and lead isotope analyses of artifacts from Pella. Levant, 35, 71–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pleiner, R. (2006). Iron in archaeology. Early European blacksmiths. Praha: Archaeologický ústav.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollock, S. (2008). Rubbish, routines, and practice: chipped stone blades from Uruk-period Sharafabad, Iran. Iran, 46, 43–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Praciunas, M. M. (2007). Bifacial cores and flake production efficiency: an experimental test of the technological assumption. American Antiquity, 72, 334–348.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richard, S. (2006). Early Bonze Age IV transition: an archaeometallurgical study. In S. Gitin, J. E. Wright, & J. P. Dessel (Eds.), Confronting the past: archaeological and historical essays on ancient Israel in honor of Williams G. Dever (pp. 119–132). Eisenbrauns: Winnona Lake.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roby, F. (2006). Vers la voiture sans pétrole. Paris: EDP Science.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rocca, R. (2013). Peut-on définir des aires culturelles au Paléolithique inférieur? Originalité des premières industries lithiques en Europe centrale dans le cadre du peuplement de l’Europe. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Nanterre: Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre- La Défense.

  • Rocca, R., Abruzzese, C., & Aureli, D. (2016). European Acheuleans: critical perspective from the east. Quaternary International, 411, 402–411.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodríguez-Alegria, E. (2008). Narratives of conquest, colonialism, and cutting-edge technology. American Anthropologist, 110(1), 33–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, S. A. (1982). Flint sickle blades of the late proto-historical and early historical periods in Israel. Tel Aviv, 9, 139–145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, S. A. (1983). The Canaanean blade and the Early Bronze Age. Israel Exploration Journal, 33, 15–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, S. A. (1984). The adoption of metallurgy in the Levant: a lithic perspective. Current Anthropology, 25(4), 504–505.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, S. A. (1986). Note on the Gezer flint caches. In W. G. Dever (Ed.), Gezer IV (pp. 259–263). Jerusalem: Hebrew Union College.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, S. A. (1989). The analysis of Early Bronze Age chipped stone industry: a summary statement. In P. de Miroschedji (Ed.), L’urbanisation de la Palestine à l’Age du Bronze ancien: bilan et perspectives des recherches actuelles (pp. 199–221). Oxford: BAR International Series.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, S. A. (1993). Metals, rocks, specialization, and the beginning of urbanism in the northern Negev. In A. Biran & J. Aviram (Eds.), Biblical archaeology today, 1990: Proceedings of the second international congress on Biblical archeology (pp. 41–56). Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, S. A. (1996). The decline and fall of flint. In G. H. Odell (Ed.), Stone tools, theoretical insights into human prehistory (pp. 129–152). New York: Plenum Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, S. A. (1997). Lithic after Stone Age: a handbook of stone tools from the Levant. Walnut Creek: Altamira Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, S. A. (2004). The chipped stone assemblage. In D. J. Ussishkin (Ed.), The renewed archaeological excavations at Lachish (Vol. 5, pp. 2197–2225). Tel Aviv: Emery and Claire Yass Publications in Archaeology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, S. A. (2017). Revolutions in the desert: the rise of mobile pastoralism in the Southern Levant. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, S. A., & Vardi, J. (2014). Chipped stone assemblage from Tell Jemmeh. In D. Ben-Shlomo & W. Van Beek (Eds.), The Smithsonian Institution excavation at Tell Jemmeh, Israel, 1970–1990 (pp. 987–1003). Washington: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, S. A., Shugar, A., & Vardi, J. (2014). Function and value in sickle segment analysis: Odellian perspective. In M. J. Shott (Ed.), Works in stone. Contemporary perspectives on lithic analysis (pp. 116–130). Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roux, V. (2003). A dynamic systems framework for studying technological change: application to the emergence of the potter’s wheel in the Southern Levant. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 10, 1–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roux, V. (2007a). Ethnoarchaeology: a non historical science of reference necessary for interpreting the past. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 14(2), 153–178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roux, V. (2007b). Non-emprunt du façonnage au tour dans le Levant Sud entre le Ve et le IVe millénaire av. J.-C.: des régularités pour des scénarios historiques particuliers. In P. Rouillard, C. Perlès, & E. Grimaud (Eds.), Mobilités, immobilisme. L’emprunt et son refus (pp. 202–213). Paris: Boccard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roux, V. (2013). Spreading of innovative technical traits and cumulative technical evolution: continuity or discontinuity? Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 20, 312–330.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roux, V. (2015a). Standardization of ceramic assemblages: transmission mechanisms and diffusion of morpho-functional traits across social boundaries. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 40, 1–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roux, V. (2015b). Cultural transmission, migration and plain wheel-made pottery in the Middle Bronze Age II Southern Levant. In C. Glatz (Ed.), Plain pottery traditions of the eastern Mediterranean and near eastern: production, use and social significance (pp. 68–88). London: UCL Institute of Archaeology Publication.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roux, V., & Courty, M.-A. (2013). Introduction to discontinuities and continuities: theories, methods and proxies for a historical and sociological approach to evolution of past societies. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 20, 187–193.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roux, V., & de Miroschedji, P. (2007). Revisiting the history of the potter’s wheel in the Southern Levant. Levant, 41(2), 155–170.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roux, V., Mille, B., & Pelegrin, J. (2013). Innovations céramiques, métallurgiques et lithiques au Chalcolithique: mutations sociales, mutations techniques. In J. Jaubert, N. Fourment & P. Depaepe (Eds.), Transitions, ruptures et continuité durant la Préhistoire: Evolution des techniques, comportements funéraires, Néolithique ancien (pp. 61–74). Société Préhistorique Française.

  • Rowan, Y. M., & Golden, J. (2009). The Chalcolithic period of the Southern Levant: a synthetic review. Journal of World Prehistory, 22, 1–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowlands, M. (1971). The archaeological interpretation of prehistoric metalworking. World Archaeology, 3(2), 210–224.

    Google Scholar 

  • Runnels, C. (1982). Flakes-stone artifacts in Greece during the historical period. Journal of Field Archaeology, 9, 363–373.

    Google Scholar 

  • Runnels, C. (1994). Tinderflint and firemaking in the historical period. Lithic Technology, 19(1), 7–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiffer, M. B. (1990). The influence of surface treatment on heating effectiveness of ceramic vessels. Journal of Archaeological Science, 17(4), 373–381.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiffer, M. B. (1996). Some relationship between behavioral and evolutionary archaeologies. American Antiquity, 61, 643–662.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiffer, M. B. (2007). Some thoughts on the archaeological study of social organization. In M. Skibo, M. Graves, & M. Stark (Eds.), Archaeological anthropology: perspectives in methods and theories (pp. 57–71). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiffer, M. B. (2011). Studying technological change: a behavioral approach. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiffer, M. B., & Skibo, J. M. (1987). Theory and experiment in the study of technological change. Current Anthropology, 28, 594–622.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiffer, M. B., Butts, T. C., & Grimm, K. K. (1994). Taking charge: the electric automobile in America. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Setright, L. J. K. (2004). Drive on! A social history of the motor car. London: Granta Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shalev, S. (1991). Two different copper industries in the Chalcolithic culture of Israel. In C. Eluère & J. P. Mohen (Eds.), La découverte du métal (pp. 413–424). Paris: Picard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shalev, S. (1994). The change in metal production from the Chalcolithic period to the Early Bronze Age in Israel and Jordan. Antiquity, 68, 630–637.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shalev, S. (2004). Swords and daggers in Late Bronze Age Canaan. Mainz: Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shalev, S. (2009). Metal and society: production and distribution of metal weapons in the Levant during the Middle Bronze Age II. In S. A. Rosen & V. Roux (Eds.), Techniques and peoples: anthropological perspectives on technology in the archaeology of the proto-historic and early historic periods in the Southern Levant (pp. 69–80). Paris: De Boccard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shennan, S. J. (2011). Descend with modification and the archaeological record. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 36, 1070–1079.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherratt, S. (2000). Circulation of metals and the end of the Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean. In C. F. E. Pare (Ed.), Metals make the world go round: the supply and circulation of metals in Bronze Age Europe. Proceedings of a conference held at the University of Birmingham in June 1997 (pp. 82–98). Oxford: Oxbow Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherratt, A., & Sherratt, S. (1991). From luxuries to commodities: the nature of Mediterranean Bronze Age trading system. In N. H. Gale (Ed.), Bronze Age trade in the Mediterranean: papers presented at the conference held at Rewley House, Oxford in December 1989 (pp. 351–386). Jonsered: P. Åström.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherratt, A., & Sherratt, S. (2001). Technological change in the East Mediterranean Bronze Age: capital, resources and marketing. In A. J. Shortland (Ed.), The social context of technological change. Egypt and near east, 1650–1050 (pp. 15–38). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherwood, A. N., Nikolic, M., Humphrey, J. W., & Oleson, J. P. (Eds.). (1998). Greek and Roman technology: a sourcebook. Annotated translation of Greek and Latin texts and documents. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shimelmitz, R. (2009). Variability in specialized Canaanean blade production of the Early Bronze Age Levant. In S. A. Rosen & V. Roux (Eds.), Techniques and people. Anthropological perspectives on technology in the archaeology of the proto-historic and early Historic periods in the Southern Levant (pp. 135–156). Paris: De Boccard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shimelmitz, R., & Zuckerman, S. (2014). Flint knapping in the Late Bronze Age, a dying technology? A perspective from the lower city oh Hazor. Levant, 46(1), 43–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simondon, G. (1989). Du mode d’existence des objets techniques. Paris: Aubier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skakun, N. N. (2008). Les grandes lames de silex du mobilier funéraire des proto-éleveurs du sud de l’Europe orientale. Préhistoire Méditerranéenne, 14. http://pm.revues.org/353. Accessed 28 Feb 2018.

  • Soriano, S. (2000). Outillage bifacial et outillage sur éclat au Paléolithique ancien et moyen: coexistence et interaction. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Nanterre: Université de Paris X- Nanterre.

  • Stech-Wheeler, T., Muhly, J. D., Maxwell-Hyslop, K. R., & Maddin, R. (1981). Iron at Taanach and early iron metallurgy in the eastern Mediterranean. American Journal of Archaeology, 85(3), 245–268.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steensberg, A. (1943). Ancient harvesting implements. Copenaghen: Nationalmuseets Skrifter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steiner, M. L., & Killebrew, A. E. (Eds.). (2014). The archaeology of the Levant. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tadmor, M., Kedem, D., Begemann, F., Hauptmann, A., Pernicka, E., & Schmitt-Strecker, S. (1995). The Nahal Mishmar hoard from the Judean Desert: technology, composition, and provenance. Atiqot, 27, 95–148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Torrence, R. (Ed.). (1989). Time, energy and stone tools. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Gijn, A. L. (1988). The use of Bronze Age flint sickles in the Netherlands: a preliminary report. In S. Beyries (Ed.), Industries lithiques: tracéologie et technologie (pp. 197–218). Oxford: BAR International Series.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vardi, J. (2011). Sickle blades and sickles of the sixth and fifth millennia BCE in light of the finds from the Chalcolithic sickle blade workshop site of Beit Eshel. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Beersheba: Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

  • Vardi, J., & Gilead, I. (2011). Side-blow blade-flakes from the Ghassulian sickle blade workshop of Beit Eshel: a Chalcolithic solution to a Neolithic riddle. In E. Healy, S. Campbell, & O. Maeda (Eds.), The state of the stone terminologies, continuities and contexts in near eastern lithics (pp. 343–356). Berlin: Ex Oriente.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vardi, J., & Gilead, I. (2013). Keeping the razor sharp: hafting and maintenance of sickles in the southern Levant during the 6th and 5th millennia BC. In F. Borrell, J. Ibáñez, & M. Molist (Eds.), Stone tools in transition: from hunter-gatherers to farming societies in the near east (pp. 377–393). Barcelona: Servei de Publicacions.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whittaker, J. C. (2000). The ethnoarchaeology of threshing in Cyprus. Near Eastern Archaeology, 63, 62–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yahalom-Mack, N., & Eliyahu-Behar, A. (2015). The transition from bronze to iron in Canaan: chronology, technology, and context. Radiocarbon, 57(2), 285–305.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yerkes, R. W., & Barkai, R. (2004). Microwear analysis of Chalcolithic bifacial tools. In N. Scheftelowitz & R. Oren (Eds.), Giv’at Ha-Oranim. A Late Chalcolithic site (pp. 110–124). Tel Aviv: Emery and Claire Yass Publications in Archaeology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, R., & Humphrey, J. (1999). Flint use in England after the Bronze Age: time for a re-evaluation? Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 65, 231–242.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zaccagnini, C. (1987). Aspect of ceremonial exchange in the near east during the late second millennium BC. In M. J. Rowland, M. T. Larsen, & K. Kristiansen (Eds.), Centre and periphery in the ancient world (pp. 57–65). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the former journal editors Cathy Cameron and Jim Skibo, Valentine Roux, Michael O’Brien, and the other anonymous referees whose relevant comments considerably improved an earlier draft of the paper.

Funding

This work was funded by the Centre de Recherche Français à Jérusalem, the Ben- Gurion University of the Negev, and the Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre- La Défense.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre de Recherche Français à Jérusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Francesca Manclossi

  2. Department of Bible, Archaeology and Near Eastern Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheva, Israel

    Steven A. Rosen

  3. Département d’Anthropologie, Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre- La Défense, Nanterre, France

    Eric Boëda

Authors
  1. Francesca Manclossi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Steven A. Rosen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Eric Boëda
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Francesca Manclossi.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Manclossi, F., Rosen, S.A. & Boëda, E. From Stone to Metal: the Dynamics of Technological Change in the Decline of Chipped Stone Tool Production. A Case Study from the Southern Levant (5th–1st Millennia BCE). J Archaeol Method Theory 26, 1276–1326 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-019-09412-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-019-09412-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation