Fitting Rocks: Lithic Refitting Examined

The contributions in this book mainly resulted from the symposium, Fitting Rocks, the big Puzzle Revisited, held in 2001 at the XIVth U.I.S.P.P. conference in Liège, Belgium. The symposium brought together a wide variety of researchers who use refitting in one way or another to answer archaeological questions. The aim was to cover both geographical space and a variety of time periods. Lithic refitting has been around for well over a century now. While the mechanics of conjoining artifacts have remained unchanged, despite some recent attempts to automate at least part of the process, the questions that have been addressed with refitting data changed dramatically over time and probably will continue to do so in the future. This volume reflects both well-established uses of refitting as well as some novel approaches. Contents: 1) Refitting in the Old and New Worlds (Utsav Schurmans and Marc de bie); 2) Partage dÆune experience de remontologue (Pierre Bodu); 3) Benefitting from refitting in intra-site analysis: lessons from Rekem (Marc de Bie); 4) Refitting and technology in the British Lower Palaeolithic: where are we? (Nick Ashton); 5) Refitting at Lapa do Anecrial: studying technology and micro-scale spatial patterning through lithic reconstructions (Francisco Almeida); 6) The interpretative potential of lithic refits in a middle Paleolithic site: the Abric Romani (Capellades, Spain) (Manuel Vaquero, Gema Chacón, José M. Rando); 7) Refitting of lithic reduction sequences, formal classification systems, and Middle Palaeolithic individuals at work (Philip van Peer); 8) Australian point and core reduction viewed through refitting (Peter Hiscock).