Current work at the Institute of Traceology in Leningrad continues and refines the principles of analysis established by the late Professor Semenov. Extensive experimental programs provide the basis for interpreting archaeological assemblages, and are also used to identify evolutionary improvements in tool types such as scrapers and sickles. The large-scale approach has permitted interpretations of whole socioeconomic systems of Neolithic date, but only of kinematics and to some extent of use-materials of Palaeolithic tools. The methods of analysis of the Leningrad school are compared with those in the west, and a combination of eastern and western methods is suggested for Palaeolithic research. -- AATA