Between History and Archaeology : papers in honour of Jacek Lech

ill. ; 29 cm

Geologic and archaeologic field work in the Cambrian-Ordovician chert bearing carbonates of the Wallkill Valley (New York and New Jersey) has located greater than 800 prehistoric bedrock quarries. Detailed examination of quarry landscapes, as well as excavated quarry tailings, has elucidated an organization to quarry development controlled by tectonics, structural geology and stratigraphy of the raw material. Geological control impacts quarry development, types of quarry tools used, and manufacture of quarry products. A predictive model for prehistoric bedrock quarry development was proposed, which in turn allowed for a chain of operation that began at the quarry face and ended with the quarry product. The chain of operation fills in a void left by previous quarry studies that were unable to visualize the steps from extraction to workshop activity, and as such led to the dismissal of quarry tailings and artifacts due to mischaracterizations stemming from misunderstanding of geological controls on extraction

il. ; 29 cm