Social, Economic and Symbolic Perspectives at the Dawn of Metal Production

A collection of six papers focusing on questions of Copper Age metallurgical contexts, outlining the importance of an integrated analysis of artefacts, considering pottery, metal, stone and osseous productions as inseparable aspects of economic and social choices. Contents: 1) First Metals, Last Flints? The Lithic Productions of Central Italy at the End of the Neolithic. Some Considerations (Cecilia Conati Barbaro); 2) The Beginning of Metallurgic Production and the Socioeconomic Transformations of the Sardinian Eneolithic (Maria Grazia Melis, Ramona Cappai, Laura Manca and Stefania Piras); 3) Buried Without Metal: The Role of Lithic Kit in Chalcolithic Funerary Contexts of the Marche Region (Central Italy) (Cristina Lemorini); 4) Producing for the Dead, Using while Alive: Lithic Tools Production and Consumption in the Late Neolithic of North-Eastern Iberia (Xavier Terradas and Antoni Palomo); 5) A View From the Mines. Flint Exploitation in the Gargano (South-Eastern Italy) and Socio?Economic Aspects of Raw Materials Procurement at the Dawn of Metal Production (Massimo Tarantini); 6) Functional Variability and Activity Areas in Prehistoric Mining Operations in Northern Chile (Diego S. Salazar, Hernan W. Salinas, David D. Ordenes and Jessica N. Parra).