Stone Tools in Transition : From Hunter-Gatherers to Farming Societies in the Near East / edited by Ferran Borrell, Juan José Ibanez, Miquel Molist.

Includes bibliographical references.

Tribute to Marie Claire Cauvin -- Brief introduction to the 7th Conference on PPN chipped and ground stone / Ferran Borrell, Juan José Ibáñez and Miquel Molist -- Assessing typo-technological variability in Epipalaeolithic assemblages : Preliminary results from two case studies from the Southern Levant / Lisa A. Maher and Danielle A. Macdonald -- Wadi al-Hajana 1 : A Khiamian outpost in the northwestern piedmont of Mt. Bishri, central Syria / Sumio Fujii and Takuro Adachi -- The bidirectional blade industries of the southern Levant / Omry Barzilai -- Nahal Hava : a PPNB campsite and Epipalaeolithic occupation in the central Negev highlands, Israel / Michal Birkenfeld and A. Nigel Goring-Morris -- Large-scale larnite quarries and production sites for bifacial tools in the southern Judean desert / Jacob Vardi -- Qumran Cave 24, a Neolithic-Chalcolithic site by the Dead Sea : a short report and some information on lithics / Avi Gopher, Cristina Lemorini, Elisabetta Boaretto, Israel Carmi, Ran Barkai and Heeli. C. Schechter -- Observations on the chaîne opératoire of bidirectional blade production at Nahal Lavan 1021 based on refitting studies / Netta Mitki, Omry Barzilai and A. Nigel Goring-Morris -- Household-level flaked-stone tool production at the Neolithic site of ‘Ain Ghazal, Jordan / Theresa M. Barket -- Early Neolithic flint raw material selection at LPPNB Ba’ja / southern Levant. Preliminary results from two room fills of area B-North / Christoph Purschwitz -- A functional investigation of perforators from the Late Natufian/Pre-Pottery Neolithic A site of Huzuk Musa – a preliminary report / Iris Groman-Yaroslavski, Danny Rosenberg and Dani Nadel -- Microdrill use at Khiamian sites in central and northern Levant (Syria and Lebanon) / Jesús González-Urquijo, Frederic Abbès, Hala Alarashi, Juan José Ibáñez and Talía Lazuén -- The Neolithic commodification of stone / Hans Georg K. Gebel -- The Neolithic of Lebanon : a statement of current knowledge / Maya Haïdar-Boustani -- Caching and depositing in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B of Yiftahel, Israel / Hamoudi Khalaily, Ianir Milevski and Omry Barzilai -- The significance of long blade caches and deposits at Late Neolithic Shir, Syria / Dörte Rokitta-Krumnow -- Opening Pandora’s Box : Some reflections on the spatial and temporal distribution of the off-set bi-directional blade production strategy and the Neolithisation of the Northern Levant / Ferran Borrell -- Exchange of points in the PPNB : points with the Palmyran retouch from Tell Ain el-Kerkh, northwest Syria / Makoto Arimura -- Naviform technology at Göllüdağ, Central Anatolia : some remarks / Semra Balci -- The lithic assemblages of Gusir Höyük (Turkey) : the preliminary results / Çiler Altinbilek-Algül -- The early cypriot Pre-Pottery Neolithic: new evidence from the Amathus area / François Briois, Jean-Denis Vigne and Jean Guilaine -- Chipped stone artifacts from the aceramic Neolithic site of Chogha Golan, Ilam Province, western Iran / Mohsen Zeidi and Nicholas J. Conard -- Chipped stone industry from the excavation at the PPN settlement of Tell-e Atashi, SE Iran / Mozhgan Jayez and Omran Garazhian -- Study of the chipped stone assemblage from systematic surface sampling at the PPN settlement of Tell-e Atashi / Maryam Shakooie and Omran Garazhian -- A reappraisal of the Pottery Neolithic flaked stone assemblages at Tall-i Jari B, Fars, Southwest Iran / Yoshihiro Nishiaki -- The ground stone tools from the aceramic Neolithic site of Chogha Golan, Ilam province, western Iran / Nicholas J. Conard and Mohsen Zeidi -- Keeping the razor sharp : hafting and maintenance of sickles in the southern Levant during the 6th and 5th millennia bc / Jacob Vardi and Isaac Gilead -- The PPNA quarry of Kaizer Hill, Modi‘in, Israel – The waste piles / Gadi Herzlinger, Leore Grosman and Naama Goren-Inbar -- Incised slabs from Hayonim cave: a methodological case study for reading Natufian art / Dana Shaham and Anna Belfer-Cohen -- Grooved stones and other macrolithic objects with incised decoration from the PPNB at Tell Halula (Syria, Middle Euphrates Valley) / Miquel Molist, Maria Bofill, Anabel Ortiz and Bushra Taha -- Grooved stones in the Southern Levant : typology, function and chronology / Ariel Vered -- Natufian bedrock mortars at Qarassa 3 : Preliminary results from an interdisciplinary methodology / Xavier Terradas, Juan José Ibáñez, Frank Braemer, Karen Hardy, Eneko Iriarte, Marco Madella, David Ortega, Anita Radini and Luis C. Teira -- Göllü Dağ Obsidian Project / Nur Balkan-Atli, Nurcan Kayacan, Semra Balci, Laurence Astruc and Korhan Erturaç -- Results of geochemical analyses of obsidian artefacts from the Neolithic site of Tell Labwe South, Lebanon / Lamya Khalidi, Bernard Gratuze, Maya Haidar-Boustani, Juan José Ibáñez and Luís Teira -- The consumption of obsidian at Neolithic Çatalhöyük : a long-term perspective / Tristan Carter and Marina Milic -- The obsidian assemblage from Neolithic Hagoshrim, Israel : pressure technology and cultural influence / Heeli C. Schechter, Ofer Marder, Ran Barkai, Nimrod Getzov and Avi Gopher -- The obsidian at Arpachiyah, Iraq ; an integrated study / Stuart Campbell and Elizabeth Healey.

This volume compiles the papers presented at the seventh edition of the Conference on PPN Chipped and Ground Stone Industries of the Fertile Crescent, held in Barcelona from 14 to 17 February 2012. This series of conferences/workshops started nineteen years ago - the first meeting was organised in Berlin in 1993 - and is devoted to the study of the lithic record in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of the Near East and neighbouring regions. The seventh of these conferences was organised by the Institució Milà i Fontanals (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas) and the Prehistory Department (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona). This volume includes a total number of 36 articles, covering a wide range of topics and disciplines related to lithic studies in the Levant over a long chronological time span (from the final stages of the Epipalaeolithic/Natufian to the Halaf period). The publication of the conference proceedings is thus an interesting synthesis of the current state of lithic studies on the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of the Near East, and consolidates this specific series of conferences as a key tool to maintain and stimulate the vitality of high quality research into the Near Eastern lithic record.