Ground Stone Analysis

A Technological Approach

By Jenny L Adams

Second Edition

Archaeologists define stone artifacts that are altered by or used to alter other items through abrasion, pecking, or polishing as “ground stone.” This includes mortars and pestles, abraders, polishers stones, and hammerstones, and artifacts shaped by abrasion or pecking, such as axes, pipes, figurines, ornaments, and architectural pieces.

The first edition of Ground Stone Analysis sparked interest around the world. In the decade following its publication, there have been many advances in scientific technology and developments in ethnographic and experimental research. The second edition incorporates these advances, including examples of international research that have utilized a technological approach to ground stone analysis. This study presents a flexible yet structured method for analyzing and classifying stone artifacts. These techniques record important attributes based on design, manufacturing, and use and are applicable to any collection in the world.

The methods presented guide quantitative and qualitative assessments of artifacts and assemblages. Recording forms and instructions for completing them will be available on the University of Utah Press’s open access portal at www.UofUpress.com. Ground Stone Analysis is an important, useful reference for any archaeological field worker or student who encounters ground stone artifacts and is interested in learning more about the people who used them.

Click here to view Appendices A-F

Jenny L. Adams is a research archaeologist with Desert Archaeology, Inc., Tucson, Arizona.

Table of Contents:List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgments

Part 1. A Foundation for Research
1. The Groundwork

Determining Function
Laying a Foundation for Analysis
Classifying Ground Stone

2. Grinding Technology and Technological Analysis Design and Manufacture

Use
Wear
Use-Wear Analysis
Kinematics
Disuse, or the Afterlife
Data Collection
Answering Research Questions
Analysis Strategy

3. Resources for Modeling Tool Use and Technological Behavior

Photographs
Ethnography
Experimental Replication
Designing Experimental Research

Part 2. Artifact Descriptions

4. Abrading, Smoothing, and Polishing Tools

Abraders and Smoothers
Polishers
Hide-Processing Stones

5. Grinding and Pulverizing Tools

Manos and Metates
Mortars
Pitted and Cupped Stones
Pestles
Handstones
Netherstones
Grinding Slabs
Lapstones
Palettes

6. Percussion Tools

Hammerstones
Pecking Stones
Choppers
Chisels
Crushers and Fergoliths
Pottery Anvils
Lithic Anvils

7. Hafted Percussion Tools

Axes
Mauls
Picks
Adzes
Mattocks
Hoes
Tchamahias

8. Spinning Tools

Fire-Drill Hearths
Spindle Bases
Whorls

9. Perforating, Cutting, and Scraping Tools

Awls
Reamers
Tabular Tools
Saws and Files
Planes

10. Paraphernalia

Atlatl Parts
Balls
Bell Stones
Cruciforms
Cylinders and Medicine Stones
Plummets and Weights
Disks
Lightning Stones
Pipes and Tubes
Shaped Stones
Pigments
Personal Ornaments
Figurines
Ecofacts

11. Containers and Container Closures

Bowls and Censers
Trays
Closures

12. Structural Stones

Loomblocks
Cooking Stones
Trivets
Fire-Cracked Rock

Appendix A. General Artifact Form
Appendix B. Handstone Form
Appendix C. Netherstone Form
Appendix D. Hafted Tool Form
Appendix E. Grooved Artifact Form
Appendix F. Perforated Artifact Form
Glossary
References Cited
Index

Praise and Reviews:

Praise for the first edition:

“Adams is to be commended for having produced a well-organized and thoroughly documented manual based on her own quarter-century of hard work and thoughtful deliberation. The book is worth careful study by anyone faced with description and interpretation of assemblages of stone artifacts whose forms were created or altered by grinding, abrading, or polishing.”—Lithic Technology

“A highly readable and well-illustrated manual that offers a structured, yet flexible, method for analyzing and classifying ground stone artifacts from any archaeological context. It is hard to imagine how [Adams’s] approach could be improved upon, and I anticipate this book will serve as a bible for ground stone analysis specialists for the forseeable future.”—Journal of Anthropological Research