Bradley and Edmonds' (1993: 83-104) lithic analysis begins with experimental knapping studies that allow them to identify the character and frequency of different classes of flaked stone generated during production. Establishing reduction stages from flakes of Great Langdale tuff material is particularly difficult because the material does not contain a visible cortex. Bradley and Edmonds pursue strategies that produce a wide range of flake and core morphologies in an effort to capture the range of possible variation in reduction at production sites. Their expressed aims are to move beyond simple measures of efficiency in production, and they also seek to use their experimentally-derived assemblages to inform their analysis such that that they do not merely derive a single, generalized reduction sequence but, instead, shed light on how knappers controlled form, and anticipated and avoided mistakes.

It was just as important to discover which methods couldhave been used to make an artifact as it was to establish which were actually selected. It is clearly important to understand howthe production process was structured in a given context, but we also need to discover whyit took the form it did (Bradley and Edmonds 1993: 88, emphasis in original).

In earlier work Edmonds (1990) cites from, and applied, the chaîne opératoireapproach to his investigation of quarry production. Curiously, in the Bradley and Edmonds (1993) volume the French term does not appear (although they cite the chaîne opératoireliterature), and in their quarry production studies they instead choose terms like "pathways" to describe sequential reduction.

Part of Bradley and Edmonds' aim is to reintegrate symbolic and social perspectives into the study of quarry production and exchange, empirical archaeologists may ask: how do Bradley and Edmonds conduct symbolic and social analysis with lithic attribute data from a quarry workshop? In their data-oriented investigation of reduction strategies, Bradley and Edmonds gather standard lithic attribute data that is largely in common with those that follow the processualist tradition; it is in the interpretations and assumptions about economy that the differences emerge. For example, many of the assemblages are described by Bradley and Edmonds along a production gradient that range from "wasteful and inefficient" to "careful preparation" or ad-hoc versus structured production using evidence from flake dimensions, platform morphology and preparation, flake termination type, and other attributes.

For Bradley and Edmonds, efficiency is investigated primarily in a heuristic manner in association with spatial context in that they suggest expediency, investment, and reduction strategies over the larger quarry area. Their technical analysis is able to conclude, among other things, that axes appeared to be exported from the quarry area in two forms: (1) crude asymmetrical rough-outs with hinges and deep scars, and (2) more processed and nearly finished artifacts that lacked only polishing.

They also note that some processing appeared to occur at some distance from the quarry, and in other cases nearly all of the production sequence occurs at the quarry. The authors used evidence of excessive labor expenditure, such as in axe grinding and polishing, as a contrast to the "rational", cost-minimizing expectations of efficient production expectations. For example, they explain that polishing of axe heads is laborious, but it results in greater longevity in the axe because during use the irregularities can act as platforms for unintentional flake removal. Furthermore, polished axes remain in their hafts more consistently. Polish over the entire surface, however, is not necessary and is labor intensive. Were axes polished over their entire surface to increase their exchange and gift value through greater labor investment? In evolutionary approaches, labor investment in goods is cited as a form of prestige technology (Hayden 1998, see Section 2.2.2). Bradley and Edmonds present an insightful review of existing approaches and bring quarry analysis one step further with their in-depth technical analysis that informs a novel yet cautious interpretation with an incorporation of elements of the symbolic and social theory current in the early 1990s.