Fitting Rocks: Lithic Refitting Examined

Abstract

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.