Abstract/Summary

Tools made of chipped stone (mainly cherts, flints and obsidians) are one of the commonest items of material culture recovered from early prehistoric sites. Much study has been devoted to their classification, typology and technology of manufacture, but what might stone tools tell us about the peoples who made and used them? In this short study we use the rich lithic evidence from Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) sites of the eastern Fertile Crescent (western Iran and eastern Iraq) to address some large-scale issues of Neolithic human activities and societies.