Phytolith analysis and stone tools: a socio-ecological analysis of stone tools assemblage of north-western south asia
Very often disciplinary and historical inertias drive current research, producing contradictions between available data and their interpretation. Lithic tools, constituting one of the most important archaeological record, are understood as a primary evidence of technological innovation and have been traditionally associated with male labour. Yet to extract information about behaviour and ways of life from these tools is difficult. Thus, the aims of PAST are, 1) to develop a sound methodology for understanding the role of specific tools and the socio-cultural aspects related to the tool use (e.g., raw material exploitation, gender division of labour), 2) to further our knowledge of the socio-ecological dynamics of the Chalcolithic communities of north-western South Asia (4th-2nd millennium BCE) by adding the information extracted from the study of lithic assemblages of key-sites, 3) to understand the change in the types of tools and their archaeological significance (are there typological or functional changes with the changing life styles of people from hunting and gathering to agriculturalists?)
Through an interdisciplinary approach, PAST integrates systematic sampling with laboratory techniques in microbotanical remains extraction and the analysis and ethnographic research on gender roles in lithic production and use, aiming at providing critical frames of reference. The interdisciplinary nature of the work provides a holistic understanding of the context, involving new strategies for sampling in the field and different cutting-edge laboratory techniques of microfossil analysis. PAST is thus expected to enhance understanding about agricultural practices and socio-ecological dynamics of past societies during a transitional time in human history and to pioneer the understanding of how technological innovation is approached by means of analysing the gender division in lithic production and use.