USE beyond manufacture: Non-flint stone artifacts from fowlers gap, Australia

Stone artifacts from Fowlers Gap western New South Wales, Australia, were manufactured from silcrete, quartz, and quartzite. Conchoidal flaking was used to manufacture artifacts from all three materials. However, it is the use of these artifacts rather than simply their manufacture that explains the composition of the archaeological assemblages. Artifacts made from the three materials were used in a range of ways, for a range of purposes. The loss of flakes through selection and transport together with the presence of expended tools suggests mobility rather than prolonged occupation, an inference made possible by considering what was abandoned rather than what was intended through manufacture.