See our collection:
Lithic materials comprise the types of stones and other substances that artifacts and stone tools are made from. Their study and recognition can sometimes help to attribute artifacts to more specific cultures or locations. Specific types of lithics used can also indicate a prestige or ceremonial purpose of the tool, adding implied importance or value to certain specimens versus if they had been manufactured out of an ordinary substance.
When an artifact is made of a type of lithic that is not available in the region where it was found or created, we can make some interesting deductions such as the tool maker might have traveled a great distance to acquire the lithic to make the artifact, the artifact might have been made by another tool maker and traded to the final owner of the tool or the lithic itself, might have been traded to the final owner who then in turn, made the tool