John J. Shea is Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He has conducted archaeological research at Stone Age sites in the Near East (Israel, Jordan, and Egypt) as well as in Eastern Africa (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania). Shea is also a professional flintknapper (one who makes replicas of stone tools) and he has demonstrated these and other skills involving Stone Age technologies in numerous television documentaries. He is the co-author and co-editor of several books, most recently Out of Africa 1: The First Hominin Colonization of Eurasia (2010). His papers have been published in American Scientist, Current Anthropology, the Journal of Human Evolution, Evolutionary Anthropology, Paléorient, and the Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society.

1. Introduction; 2. Lithics basics; 3. The Lower Paleolithic; 4. The Middle Paleolithic; 5. The Upper Paleolithic; 6. The Epipaleolithic; 7. The Neolithic; 8. Conclusion.