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Since the pioneering days of Paleolithic archaeology in western Europe, the making of stone tools has received special attention. Numerous studies were aimed at creating systematic typologies of artifacts based on descriptions of their technical features and morphological attributes. Recently, the concept of chaîne opératoire, or "operational sequence" (sometimes called "core reduction sequence"), borrowed from French social anthropologists, has been introduced into the study of Old World prehistory. Its conceptual framework is focused on the recognition of the overall technology and the practical skills of the prehistoric knapper in employing a particular technique responsible for the transformation of raw material to tools. Although the stone objects of all periods received attention, those of the Middle Paleolithic-due to issues such as the significance of lithic variability in retouched tools, the demise of the Neanderthals, or the emergence of "modern behavior"-have been at the forefront. This paper discusses the definition of chaîne opératoire and its practice and demonstrates that as a system of classification, it is overformalized and provides but an illusion of reading the minds of prehistoric knappers. The need to pay more attention to the recognition of patterning in the technological information is essential if we wish to go beyond a formal type list of knapping products. We argue that an elaborate, complex typology of core reduction products and discrete chaînes opératoires is an approach that impedes informed behavioral interpretations by forcing a rigid framework of "technical" definitions on the prehistoric lithic technologies.

A detailed microwear study was performed on several assemblages from Northeast Africa to provide an anthropological scenario of late middle and upper Pleistocene populations in the Nile Valley and adjacent zones. Results are presented from the wear analysis of five sites, and an interpretation is provided of the keystones of MSA behaviour and its evolution throughout about 150,000 years. Locally available raw materials were predominantly used. Different tool uses were identified based on wear evidence, and it was demonstrated that stone tools were hafted from at least the early MSA onwards. In particular stone tools for which hafting was a necessity for their use, such as percussion implements and projectiles, were hafted. Both tool functions remain important throughout the Middle Stone Age. For tools with other uses, such as knives, hafting was demonstrated in certain cases. Hafting proved to be integrated into the stone tool production process, indicating a certain degree of anticipation and planning. Ochre was present at most of the sites in different forms, and mainly seems to have served a utilitarian function, and a possible symbolic use. The included sites could be interpreted as specialised sites, and in all but one case were situated in a production context. The evidence indicates the existence of a regional settlement system with different logistic nodes.

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