There is an awful dearth of good book shops in this remote provincial area of Britain. It's not anything like living in Cambridge, or even my dearly beloved home town of Bridport. Still, I am ever on the lookout for little tomes of interest. One caught my eye in a little shop one day, and I bought it on a whim. I owned many such books before I lost the house, but decided to only take primary sources with me (for I had to make a decision). Since then, my book collection has increased substantially, mainly thanks to living in Cambridge (where one will find books unavailable anywhere online even) but also ordering books online. Anyway. I picked up this little book, and just started reading it (in the bath, as I often do), and it is actually quite useful.
Although rudimentary and aimed at a much lower audience than post-graduates, it's always good to brush up on the basics of any discipline, and I have not formally studied archaeology (except for some sections in my master's) since 2016.
Although this backwater has very few book shops (and certainly none like Hay-on-Wye or Oxford) it does, however, have a wealth of archaeological artefacts, often found on public footpaths and byways, where the horses have churned up the path so one is able to garner so many pieces of struck flint, one can scarcely keep them all in a tiny little room (where I live) along with all the many hundreds of books I have accrued over the years.
Dating these pieces is often difficult. Due to my experience and also many books I own on the subject, one can attempt to discern a particular piece's age by the size of the flakes. There are also other factors, such as similar artefacts belonging to a particular group or trend. Many of these kinds of artefacts are outlined in this book I bought. (I normally rely on Collins' Fieldguide to Archaeology).
I had bought the book in question (Seventy Great Inventions from the Ancient World) to delve further into particular innovations as outlined by Hero of Alexandria, the second or first century B.C.E. historian and machinist, or indeed those outlined by the first century B.C.E. author Vitruvius (also perhaps even things like hypocausts and such like).
Reading a book cover to cover means that (in this case) the authors begin with the most archaic artefacts first, and these are the kind one finds around here. There are several indicators which I had not factored in when attempting to date pieces mentioned in this book. The dates are only very approximate (and indeed, can be narrowed down by reading 'The Doorstep' as its know to people that studied A251 World Archaeology by Phil Perkins, that is, The Human Past by Chris Scarre et al.). Surely this ought to be done in conjunction with other dry excavation reports and appropriate grey literature. Yet in this little beginners' book I recently bought, there are certain styles of struck flint (not least of which the twin bladed stone axe head, a mainstay in technology for many thousands of years) which can help date them, such as microliths, being from only roughly 20,000 years B.C.E. There are, of course, regional variations, so different (modern) nations' territories developed certain innovations at various different times, which must be factored in.
Did you know, for example, that among the very earliest kinds of accomodation ever invented (I should say: discovered) were from the Ukraine around 44,000 years B.C.E.?
Max.
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