A Primer on Lithics: A Lecture by Dr. James N. Cole
I remember the first day of my undergraduate History class. Our professor had shown some Acheulean handaxes, and one of my classmates just observed ," But how do you know this is a stone tool? It's just a piece of stone !" I think that aptly sums up my experience with lithics, till the day I sat for Dr. James N. Cole's lecture. This time when Dr. Cole's lecture on the lithics got finalized and we got to know about the dates, there was a subtle difference in the way I perceived it. I was now a student of Archaeology, already two months into my Masters. Did it make a difference to the way I would approach the lecture? I don't think there was, barring the fact that I had heard the word "lithics" in my last two months for at least a hundred times, in the classroom discussions. Okay, I will be brutally honest about how I first approached the lecture. I was obviously elated to have Dr. Cole back, and get to listen to him once more. But why, lithics? Out