Extensive experiments indicate that the application of heat to flint materials may have conferred an advantage to primitive man in the manufacture of chipped-stone implements. When Florida cherts are slowly heated to between 350 degrees and 400 degrees C and maintained at this temperature for sustained periods, a desirable change occurs in the fracture properties. This alteration takes place when the melting point of the impurities within the intercrystalline spaces is reached; thus the microcrystals of quartz are fitted closer together when materials other than quartz serve as fluxes.

This book was originally published in 1984. For over a million years rocks provided human beings with the essential raw materials for the production of tools. Nevertheless we still know very little about the behaviour and processes that resulted in the creation of archaeological sites at or near lithic quarries. In the past archaeologists have placed much emphasis on the process of 'exchange' in their analysis of prehistoric economies while largely ignoring the sources of the exchanged objects. However, with the development of interest in the means of production, these sites have begun to take on a new significance. Prehistoric Quarries and Lithic Production is the first systematic study of archaeological sites that served as quarries for stone tools. Its theoretical and methodological importance will extend its appeal beyond those archaeologists concerned with lithic technology and prehistoric exchange systems to archaeologists and anthropologists in general and to geographers and geologists.

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