A Manual for Neanderthals / / H. Mewhinney.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2000
• VerfasserIn: Mewhinney, H.,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©1957
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (134 p.)

The story of humanity’s earliest days on earth has come down to us chiefly in the tools and weapons early hominids shaped from flint. With these tools, they gained ascendancy over less dexterous beasts and began the slow conquest of their environment. Other records, including their very bones, have largely rotted away, but their tools of flint endure. H. Mewhinney presents A Manual for Neanderthals as “a common-sense, down-to-earth study of how flint tools and weapons were made—or for that matter, can still be made by any descendant of Stone Age man.” The author first sets the scene with a delightful and informative disquisition on flintflaking and flint-flakers, and then explains clearly and concisely how he and earlier Neanderthals have made flint artifacts, illustrating each step with drawings and photographs. Archeologists and anthropologists will discover in this book a modest but genuine contribution to their fields, while collectors of Indian relics and people who like to tinker with tools and master unusual skills will find it a surprisingly practical guide to an interesting and ancient art. With patience, and with A Manual for Neanderthals at your side, you too can learn to flake flint.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Foreword -- Contents -- I. Speech, Fire, and Flin -- II. A Synopsis of the Stone Age -- III. The Nature of Flint -- IV. Percussion Flaking: Blade and Core -- V. Pressure Flaking -- VI. The Hammer and the Chisel -- VII. Fire and Wet Straw -- VIIL A Reconsideration of Blades -- IX. Barbing and Notching -- X. Hammerstone and Cutting Edge -- XI. The Absent-minded Beveler -- XII. Clovis and Folsom Craftsmanship -- XIII. The Legend of Ishi -- XIV. Of Craftsmanship and Homicide -- XV. Some Beautiful Hypotheses -- XVI. A Few Thoughts on Fakes -- XVII. Remembering Boucher de Perthes -- Reading List -- Index