Contemporary Stone Tools in Ethiopia: Implications for Archaeology

In the central part of Ethiopia there are a number of people who still make and use stone tools. This paper describes the pattern as observed from the study of twelve informants. It includes the quarrying of the raw materials (obsidian), the manufacture of the tools, the function of the tools (hide scraping), and the reworking of the tools and their eventual disposal. The social status and situation of the men who make and use the stone tools are briefly outlined.The implications of this pattern for prehistorians is discussed. It is concluded that much of the information available to the ethnographer would not have been deduced from material remains alone by the archaeologist.