Michael J. Shott is professor emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Akron. His research focuses on stone-tool analysis and how the archaeological record formed, based on fieldwork in the American midcontinent, Great Basin, Mexico, and South America. He has authored four monographs, including Pottery Ethnoarchaeology in the MichoacÁn Sierra, and has edited four volumes, including Works in Stone: Contemporary Perspectives on Lithic Analysis.