From Scatters to Structured Data: First Lessons from Analysing Large Lithic Datasets from Southwest Asia

Tobias Richter and Joe Roe

Paper presented at the 11th International Conference of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Chipped & Ground Stone Industries of the Near East, Jalès, 11–14th November 2025, 2025.

Abstract

Archaeologists have amassed substantial quantities of lithic artefact and technological data from Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic sites in Southwest Asia over the past century, and although several large large catalogues were compiled in analogue format in the past (Hours et al., 1994; Schyle and Uerpmann, 1996) this data has thus far featured relatively little in pan-regional analyses with notable exceptions (Kozłowski and Aurenche, 2005; Maeda et al., 2016; Schyle and Uerpmann, 1996). Increasingly powerful computational methods now allow for the comprehensive interrogation of such datasets at greater depth. Research in other regions has demonstrated that computational macroarchaeological analyses can yield valuable insights into cultural dynamics, social interaction, and technological development (Hussain et al., 2023; Matzig et al., 2021; Riede et al., 2024). Here, we present an initial exploratory analysis of legacy lithic datasets undertaken within the framework of the Ancient Environmental Genomics Initiative for Sustainability (AEGIS) project, as part of which we are constructing a large database of Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic sites and assemblages. We discuss the opportunities and pitfalls encountered during this process, and present preliminary insights into technological variability, regional interaction patterns, and the potential of meta- analytical approaches to revisit long-standing debates in Southwest Asian Neolithic archaeology.