Artifacts of Prehistoric America by Louis A. Brennan, was published in 1975, and is long out of print. However, it usually can be found on Amazon in used condition.
The main reason I find this book useful, and would recommend it, is because it illustrates numerous classes of very crude and hard to recognize artifacts that collectors nonetheless are very likely to run into hunting prehistoric sites. It's great to have books that show you many examples of the classes of tools we are all familiar with beyond projectile points. Less common are books that show you many examples of crude or less understood/recognized tools. And Brennan's book is very good for doing that. I'm including a couple images below to illustrate what I am trying to say.
I would not spend a lot of $$$ on this book. It's useless for typology. But, it's excellent for showing things you will likely run into hunting sites, but might leave behind, or fail to interpret correctly.
When surface hunting sites, collector bias is always a factor in the assemblage that will be put together from that site. Collector bias means there will be artifacts some collectors will simply leave, because "it's not good enough", or it's simply not recognized. The more you can eliminate collector bias, the more the site assemblage you develop will reflect all the activity present at that site, and not just the activity/artifacts you readily recognize. And, for that reason, I think this is a useful addition to an artifact hunter's library.
As the one customer review states: "The photos in this book help you to realize you may have passed by some great artifacts!"
Exactly......
The main reason I find this book useful, and would recommend it, is because it illustrates numerous classes of very crude and hard to recognize artifacts that collectors nonetheless are very likely to run into hunting prehistoric sites. It's great to have books that show you many examples of the classes of tools we are all familiar with beyond projectile points. Less common are books that show you many examples of crude or less understood/recognized tools. And Brennan's book is very good for doing that. I'm including a couple images below to illustrate what I am trying to say.
I would not spend a lot of $$$ on this book. It's useless for typology. But, it's excellent for showing things you will likely run into hunting sites, but might leave behind, or fail to interpret correctly.
When surface hunting sites, collector bias is always a factor in the assemblage that will be put together from that site. Collector bias means there will be artifacts some collectors will simply leave, because "it's not good enough", or it's simply not recognized. The more you can eliminate collector bias, the more the site assemblage you develop will reflect all the activity present at that site, and not just the activity/artifacts you readily recognize. And, for that reason, I think this is a useful addition to an artifact hunter's library.
As the one customer review states: "The photos in this book help you to realize you may have passed by some great artifacts!"
Exactly......
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