Description: The significance of use-wear studies in archaeological research plays an important role as a proxy to prehistoric techno-cultural reconstruction. The present volume, divided into five thematic sections, includes chapters discussing various different research methods, techniques, chronologies and regions. As such, this volume will be of interest to both archaeologists and anthropologists.
Brief description: Joao Marreiros is a Post-doctoral Researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center of Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behaviour (ICARhEB) in the Universidade do Algarve, Portugal, and at the Departamento de Arqueologia y Antropologia de la Instituicion Mila I Fontanals, del Consejo. His research focuses on the technology and functionality of stone tools from the Early Upper Palaeolithic in Western Europe, particularly on the techno-typological and use-wear analysis of lithic tools from the Early Upper Palaeolithic industries in the Iberian Peninsula. Juan Gibaja is a Ramon y Cajal Researcher at the Departamento de Arqueologia y Antropologia de la Instituicion Mila I Fontanals, del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC). During the last decade, he has directed several research projects focusing on lithic use-wear analysis. His research focuses on the key transition phases from Late and Early Prehistory: namely, the transition between the last Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans, and the transition from the last hunter-gatherers from the Mesolithic to the first farmers of the Neolithic in the Occidental Mediterranean. Nuno Bicho is currently an Associate Professor of Archaeology at the Universidade do Algarve, Portugal, where he served as Dean in 1998-2001 and in 2005-2007. In addition, Dr. Bicho is the Director of the Interdisciplinary Center of Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behaviour at the University of the Algarve. He specializes in Palaeolithic ecodynamics, and his research has focused on prehistoric costal hunter-gatherers of southern Iberia for the last two decades.