ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, we saw how the later third millennium witnessed a number of profound changes in the character of social life. The course of these developments varied from one part of Britain to another, but patterns of production and consumption indicate that many stone tools were caught up in these broader processes. The simple proliferation of tool forms suggests that many served to define boundaries between different aspects of day-to-day activity: at least some tools may also have provided material expressions of the divisions of labour and influence that existed within communities. Items of personal gear provided media through which aspects of the self were presented, from membership of particular age or gender classes through to position within local lines of descent and inheritance.
