Skillful stones:

Special issue; contributions include

the focus of the article is on exploring craft expertise and its potential as a factor in aggrandizer strategies. It is argued that there are elements of natural aptitude which enabled certain individuals to excel at flintknapping, allowing them to create objects of exceptional size and beauty in acts of elaborate knapping. Practice alone will enable an individual to reach a certain level of proficiency, but only practice in combination with ability can result in world-class performance. If, as is argued, native ability in some domain is a rare commodity, then harnessing it and developing it through practice would provide an opportunity for a potential aggrandizer to control prestige goods and accrue social capital. In situations where raw material, knowledge, and know-how are ubiquitous, as may have been true for flint technology in southern Scandinavia during the Late Neolithic, this might be one of few means available for a would-be aggrandizer to control prestigious goods

it is argued that skill is central to the identification of the individual within lithic analysis. Modern replication tends to focus on the proficient flintknapper, and emphasises complex, technically demanding implements and high quality raw materials. Yet, acquiring lithic skill is a universal process that manifests itself in various ways depending on technological strategy and raw material. The paper presents the results of a programme of experimental replication that explores notions of consistency and identity. Based on Mesolithic blade technology, using direct percussion reduction and variable pebble resources, it compares knappers with different experience and identifies some salient parameters of individual performance

the author argues that skill is a challenging topic for archeologists because it requires balancing the biases of cultural relativity with the commonsense understanding that some humans are more able than others. Using the content and results model of technology, the paper identifies skill as a variable of technological knowledge with recognizable material results. Late Paleolithic Japanese blade and microblade assemblages suggest that skill differentials exist on the cognitive, operational, and motor levels. These examples, together with ethnoarcheological consideration of modern potters suggest material reflections of technical skill. These include regularity in performance and product, skilled tools, and obvious signs of practice