Technology, memory and landscape
Stone does not speak for itself: it acquires meaning through its relationship with the hands, places and practices that transformed it.
Five thematic journeys connect tools, architecture, funerary practices, petroglyphs and a geological formation that still raises questions.
One material, many histories
In archaeology, the long history of stone technologies does not justify imagining societies frozen in a single ‘Stone Age’. Stone tools formed part of broader technological repertoires. Since wood, fibres and other organic materials generally preserve less well, stone may occupy a disproportionate place in the archaeological record, without necessarily having dominated technological life as a whole.125
An object’s shape does not automatically reveal its function. Raw material, manufacturing sequence, fractures, microscopic traces, residues, stratigraphic position and associations with other evidence must be studied together. Metates and grinding slabs can process plant, animal or mineral materials and acquire long histories of use; morphology alone cannot establish what was ground or for how long.125, 126
In the Aburrá Valley, stone occurs in portable objects, grinding surfaces, paths, terraces, walls, channels, tombs and rock engravings. It also forms natural outcrops such as La Galana, whose possible human significance must not be confused with demonstrated human modification. Each scale raises different questions and requires observation, comparison and interpretation to remain distinct.36, 110, 118, 127, 128
Text + image + link
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Knapping, polishing and grinding help us investigate technical choices, learning and activities. The recreations bring hands and objects together without turning a possible use into an established fact.
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Centres, outlines, fields and axes offer a way of reading engravings and the rock surfaces that bear them. Comparisons with pottery and other regional contexts help formulate hypotheses about social meaning and chronology.129
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Critical synthesis
Stone can preserve forms, surfaces and spatial relationships for a long time. It can also be moved, broken, reused or modified later. Its endurance makes observation possible, but does not guarantee an intact context.36, 125
That is why stones ‘speak’ in quotation marks: research builds testable explanations from attributes and associations. The aim is not to make them say more than they preserve, but to ask questions that distinguish use-wear, reuse, a possible symbol and a chance resemblance.
Vancouver referencing
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