ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the major technologies used by the ancients. Archaeologists have experimented with the making of stone tools since the mid-nineteenth century. Today many archaeological laboratories ring to the sound of people trying to make stone tools and replicate ancient technology and cutting their fingers in the process. The prehistory of how we have fed ourselves is as complex as the history of technology. Modern experimenters have drawn on both experimentation and ethnographic observation to work out ancient techniques. Bone and antler were probably used from the beginnings of human history. The earliest artifacts consisted of little more than fragments of fractured animal bone used for purposes that could not be fulfilled by wood or stone implements. Like bone, wood was used for human artifacts from the earliest times. Wood was probably the most important raw material available to our ancestors. The chapter describes the process of pottery manufacture, the various methods used, and the surface finishes employed.
