Isn’t it true that necessity is the mother of invention?
Isn’t it also true that if you have something that works and you are in a must-do-xyz-to-survive environment, that you use what’s available and what has worked historically?
New inventions occur when you don’t have traditional materials or tools OR when you have patronage.
So they made stone tools in the north because they didn’t have access to their traditional materials/tools (shells).
Dunno. Her contention seems like a no-brainer to me. What am I missing, why is it such a revolutionary way to look at it?
Rocks are everywhere, so if they weren’t used, that’s a weird thing. This shell discovery may lead to reanalysis of finds elsewhere, and shell tools will probably be recognized in prehistoric digs elsewhere.