Industry (archaeology)

An industry consists of a number of lithic assemblages, typically including a range of different types of tools, that are grouped together on the basis of shared technological or morphological characteristics.

[2] For example, the Acheulean industry includes hand-axes, cleavers, scrapers and other tools with different forms, but which were all manufactured by the symmetrical reduction of a bifacial core producing large flakes.

By contrast, industries are defined by basic elements of lithic production which may have been used by many unrelated human groups over tens or even hundred thousands of years,[1] and over very wide geographical ranges.

Sites producing tools from the Acheulean industry stretch from France to China, as well as Africa.

[5] However, findings from ancient DNA studies describe several changes and periods of stasis in European populations that are not strongly reflected in the current cultural taxonomic frameworks.