Animal procurement and tool production form two of the most tightly
connected components of human behaviour. They are tied to our emergence
as a genus, were fundamental to the dispersal of our species, and
underpin the development of our societies. The interaction between these
fundamental activities has been a subject of archaeological inference
from the earliest days of the discipline, yet the pursuit of each has
tended to encourage and entrench specialist study. As a result, our
understanding of them has developed in full-view but in general
isolation of one from the other. This volume begins the process of
integrating what have all too often become isolated archaeological and
interpretative domains. Exposing and exploring contexts spanning much of
prehistory, and drawing data from a wide range of environmental
settings, the book covers both sides of the complex inter-relationship
between animals, the technologies used to procure them and those arising
from them. In taking a more inclusive approach to the material,
technological and social dynamics of early human subsistence we have
returned to the earliest of those archaeological associations: that
between stone tools and animal bones. In revealing the inter-dependence
of their relationship, this volume takes what we hope will be a first
step towards a revitalized understanding of the scope of past
interactions between humans and the world around them.
Krish Seetah is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology,
Stanford University. His zooarchaeological research focuses on
butchering and the socio-economic context of food.
Brad Gravina is a member of the laboratory Préhistoire a l'Actuel:
Cultures, Evironment et Anthropologie (PACEA) at the University of
Bordeaux. His research focuses on the final Middle Palaeolithic of
Western Europe with an emphasis on lithic technology and taphonomy.
