Prehistoric Stone Tools of Eastern Africa

John J. Shea is Professor of Anthropology at Stony Brook University, New York. He is the author of Stone Tools in Human Evolution (Cambridge, 2016) and Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic of the Near East: A Guide (Cambridge, 2012).

• 1. Introduction; 2. Stone tools: essential terms and concepts; 3. How to read stone tools; 4. Eastern Africa; 5. The Eastern African lithic record; 6. Cores and tools; 7. Flakes/detached pieces; 8. Retouched pieces; 9. Percussors and groundstone artifacts; 10. Conclusion.

'… the typology presented here is far-reaching and covers a vast chronological and geographic span. For students, this book presents a very good overview of East African prehistory focused on the stone tool record and the basics of lithic technology, as well as providing a new means by which to approach lithic assemblages. For new and established researchers this book prompts us to question why we study lithics, what information can be gained from them and how can we develop, as a discipline, our methodologies so as to address the big questions of palaeoanthropology and human behaviour.' Tomos Proffitt, Journal of African Archaeology