Palaeolithic Reflections

"This volume presents the first systematic and detailed study of Australian stone tools as they were used and manufactured in recent times in the Western Desert ... This book documents, with many illustrations and photographs, methods of manufacture and use and the range of detailed morphology of specific tool types, including the first published illustrations of hand held scrapers and sawing implements ... In the final section of the volume, two Pintupi men return to campsites that they had occupied as young men, relocate the sites at which they had stayed and where they had used only stone tools, and help the author excavate the central portions of those sites. They describe the activities which took place at the sites and the author attempts to match their description of activities with a prehistorian's interpretation of what the stone and bone debris at the site represents. Finally, from both excavation and technical project data, estimates of rates of accumulation and radii of debris scatter are formulated for use by prehistorians."--Back cover.