This book is a refreshing approach to understanding the basics of stone tools. Brian Hayden sets out to accomplish the goal of introducing stone tool technology by promoting a design perspective drawn from engineering. This use of design theory emphasizes not only the process of creating stone tools but also the problems of the past addressed by use of those tools. Over nine chapters the author draws on a wide range of research and experience gained throughout his career to provide an overview of stone tool technology. It is all conveyed in an approachable manner that is less intimidating for students, novice archaeologists, or those with little to no experience in the area than specialized texts on lithics might be.

After relaying essential background information and describing the utility of an experimental/experiential approach (making and using stone tools) in the first chapter, the author introduces design theory in Chapter 2 as a useful technique for investigating stone tools and human behavior. The author explains how design theory differs from the chaîne opératoire approach in emphasizing why one stone tool design would be valued and adopted over another. He also discusses the utility of ethnohistoric inquiry and ethnographic observation as modes of gaining insight into the design of stone tools and the identification of connections to nonlithic artifacts influencing such designs.

In Chapters 3–5, which form the bulk of the book, Hayden integrates the design theory approach into our understanding of lithics. In Chapter 3, the author outlines the specific design of items with multipurpose flexibility, such as expedient flakes, versus those with possibly more specialized functions, such as endscrapers designed for the task of scraping hides. However, in Chapter 4, Hayden reiterates that even for specialized stone implements there is still functional flexibility; for example, using an endscraper for scraping not only hide but also bone and wood. This is compared to the flexibility of a modern screwdriver that is used for functions other than fastening, even if its specific design is intended to turn screws. In this chapter, Hayden also presents some of the differences between tools and stone tool manufacturing debris (debitage) and an introduction to flake tools. Chapter 5 continues with an overview of specialized tools and the lithic terminology that all students of archaeology should know. It explores the reductive techniques of production: blade production, bipolar percussion, and direct percussion for creating bifaces. These three chapters acquaint the reader with key concepts of debitage analysis and the myriad ways that humans have modified the edges of stone tools to haft, reshape, resharpen, or recycle them into unique task-oriented tools. The concepts of non-intentional breakage (e.g., trampling and plow damage) and unmodified edges (e.g., Levallois point) are also presented.

In Chapter 6, the author explains why lithic analysts think stone tools are designed the way they are to accomplish specific tasks, calling on important echoes of the key theoretical underpinnings developed in the study of stone tools (i.e., the concept of reliability/maintainability). Chapter 7 then takes a short jaunt through changes over time of various stone tool technologies and their unique characteristics, from the Paleolithic to recent periods of the past. Hayden then connects these concepts in Chapter 8 by providing an example of a stone tool assemblage derived from his own work at the Keatley Creek site in British Columbia. Chapter 9 completes the book with summative statements and a reemphasis on exploring ethnohistoric and ethnographic cases as sources of behavioral models of stone tools in action with which to compare archaeological material.

A highlight of this book is that it engages readers at the close of each chapter with an experiential exercise, in which they can complete a task requiring the use of stone tools or where tool use would increase chances for its successful completion. Each chapter also ends with key readings. Overall, this book is an enjoyable read that will certainly encourage readers to see the excitement and passion that students of lithic technology experience in the study of stone tools. The length and pacing of the book make it easily digestible and accessible to a wide audience.