Austvoll/Seaways to Complexity, 5. Regional Variations 3: Lithics, Metal and Ship Motifs in Rock Art

Chapter 5 explores the distribution and different uses of lithic technologies, as well as the chronological spread of metal objects and the evidence of transport provided by ship motifs in rock art. The occurrence of lithics and metal can be used as a measurement of interaction – whether trade or exchange. Although different economic functions might be varied across artefact category, e.g. flint daggers can be viewed as part of a prestige (technology) economy while the simple shaft-hole axes are part of a practical (technology) economy, they all serve as proxies for temporal interaction and concentration along the coast.