One of the most common artifacts found at prehistoric sites are the remains of stones and rocks that have been modified through direct human action. This is because stone is durable and does lend itself to taphonic processes is do organically based remains. Within this category of remains there are two broad categories recognized by archaeologists, ground stone and lithics. Lithic remains include the by-products, finished products, broken products and the tools used to manufacture these products from various kinds of rock sources.   

The Lithics Analysis Lab has the tools necessary to replicate chipped stone tools in almost all the materials used by prehistoric tool makers. This allows us to test inferences made about stone tools. 

Lithic remains include items such as arrow and spear points, scrapers, knives, awls and all the other tools that might have comprised a prehistoric toolkit. This category also includes the by-products, called debitage of tool manufacture. Often debitage are the most numerous remains found at a location used by prehistoric Native Americans. Overlooked in the early days of archaeology, debitage have become a significant diagnostic tool for modern archaeologists.

Debitage Analysis
The analysis of debitage provides significant data for the archaeologist. Debitage analysis can be approached from several directions. Debitage can be classified by various attributes such as size, source material, evidence of use, presence of cortical material and many other useful categories.

Stone Tool Analysis
Stone tools chipped from various kinds of useful rocks provide a valuable source of information for archaeologists. Stone tools, whether fragments or whole pieces provide information to archaeologists about a particular provenance because the can be classified by shape, apparent usage, method of manufacture or some other criteria such as source material. They also provide information from the analysis of their surfaces for both residues and use marks.

Ground Stone Analysis
Ground stone artifacts are found in many contexts because they preserve well. Ground stone tools, in the local Southern Nevada context, were generally used in food preparation but had other applications as well.

The Lithics Collection consists of materials from all surveys and excavations that included Lithic remains. These materials are from a broad range of contexts in the Southern Nevada area.