Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Rock Or Relic? Lithic Technology And Social Life In The Mimbres Mogollon Region Of Southwestern New Mexico, Jeffrey Dylan Clark Person

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research project investigates stone tool technology at pithouse and pueblo sites in the Mimbres Mogollon region of southwestern New Mexico. Starting around AD 550, people in this area were shifting from mobile foragers who moved in seasonal rounds to sedentary village farmers. This process of subsistence change sparked further changes in material culture and social organization across the Mimbres region. The dissertation focuses on lithic debitage, the stone flakes and rock shatter that resulted from reducing stone cores into usable cutting and scraping tools. Debitage from three Mimbres sites, the Harris site, La Gila Encantada, and Elk Ridge were …

Experimental Archaeology: Assessing Methods In Lithic Debitage Analysis, Eva Larson

Departmental Honors Projects

Although often referred to as ‘waste’ flakes, lithic debitage can provide a great deal of information about how past peoples lived and created their stone tools. While we can never have all the answers, lithic debitage analysis can help us fill in these historic gaps. This thesis employs lithic debitage analysis of nine experiments provided by expert flintknapper Dan Wendt to better understand early biface, late biface, and core/flake reduction techniques. Recording attributes including flake class, raw material, general size characteristics, platform grinding, platform lip, percussion bulb, and flake termination allow for a thorough and impressive dataset. Additionally, Wendt’s experiments …

Assessment Of Lithic Reduction Methods, Hannah Dory Bergene

Departmental Honors Projects

The way lithic artifacts are analyzed is critical to understand human behavior. How lithic attributes are measured can add important context to archaeological sites and experimental lithic collections. By re-evaluating the way we analyze lithic reduction strategies and measure lithic attributes, we can come to a conclusion as to how they compare. In the project that will be described, nine lithic experiments created by expert flintknapper, Dan Wendt, will be measured and analyzed in accordance with the Hamline University Archaeology Lab Debitage Analysis Protocol. Assessing the data collected from these nine experimental collections allowed me and my fellow researcher, Eva …

Evaluating The Analytical Contribution Of 1/8-Inch (0.32 Centimeter) Lithic Debitage At The Sunrise Ridge Borrow Pit Site (45pi408), David R. Davis

All Master's Theses

Due to a relatively recent trend toward universal use of screens with ⅛-inch (0.32 cm) mesh-sized openings, archaeologists in the Pacific Northwest have expressed concerns regarding the overall utility of collection and analysis of 0.32 cm (⅛-inch) mesh-sized lithic debitage. Recovering and analyzing these small-sized artifacts is a time-intensive endeavor that adds costs to fieldwork and laboratory tasks. The information potential from attribute analysis of 0.32 cm (⅛-inch) mesh-sized lithic debitage when a site’s lithic assemblage consists of mainly debitage is largely missing from the programmatic literature. The Sunrise Ridge Borrow Pit Site (45PI408), located on the slopes of Mount …

Debitage Attributes, Obsidian Source Analysis, And Prehistoric Mobility In Southeastern Idaho, Ben Joaquin Zumkeller

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study is to complement existing knowledge on prehistoric mobility in eastern and southern Idaho. I add specific detail regarding the use of Skull Canyon and its well-known Birch Creek rockshelters during hunter-gatherers’ logistical foraging rounds.

In addition, my research is a case study in combining debitage attribute analysis and intensive toolstone sourcing to read prehistoric mobility. Prior research has looked to obsidian toolstone sourcing to understand prehistoric eastern and southern Idaho mobility. However, no prior research has involved sourcing an entire, stratified assemblage of prehistoric debitage.

I collected flake attribute data from all 2,846 pieces of …

Lithic Technological And Functional Variability Between Mesa And Riverine Environments In The Mid-Columbia River Basin, Josh Allen

All Master's Theses

This study develops a theoretically informed method and technique to compare variability between pre-contact riverine and hinterland Mesa archaeological resources of the mid-Columbian River Basin in Central Washington. To test the developed model, the study follows suggestions made by Dr. William Smith (1977:82) to “develop a testable hypothesis” using Mesa sites and other site types across environments with a more “sophisticated system for the classification of both artifacts and features.” Three sites (Mesa 06, 12, and 36) are compared to a riverine site (45DO673) to determine how the frequency of technological and functional traits of lithic stone tools and debitage …

The Roscoe Perry House Site: A Long-Term Prehistoric Occupation In The Hudson Valley, Dylan C. Lewis

Theses and Dissertations

This report analyzes the stored collection of artifacts excavated from a historic house overlooking the Rondout Creek and the Hudson River. This is a multicomponent site. It contains fifteen archaeological phases ranging from the Early Archaic to the Contact Period.

Variability In The Debitage Of The Early Holocene Lithic Assemblages Of The Sanders (45kt315) Site, Alexis Dyson

All Master's Theses

This thesis applies an analytic strategy based on a Darwinian evolutionary theoretical framework to measure variation in the cost and performance of stone tool manufacture and use at the Sanders (45KT315) site over time. Using this model, this thesis identified the selective conditions present in the technological organization of stone tool assemblages at the Sanders site. These conditions were identified by measuring variability in the debitage using mutually exclusive paradigmatic classifications. The classifications measure technological, functional, and raw tool stone material property dimensions. This thesis identifies the extent that debitage could be used to address variability between the Lower Lithic …

The Organization Of Technology In The Pine Hills Of Mississippi, Ronald W. Wise Jr.

Master's Theses

This thesis details the use of experimental flintknapping to better understand stone tool production and the organization of technology among Woodland period hunter-gatherers within the Pine Hills region of Mississippi. The Pine Hills region is characterized archaeologically by the presence of numerous sites consisting of flake scatters and little other material remains. Local tool stone resources consist of high grade chert in the form of small river cobbles, which restricts potential tool forms available to users.

Research for this project focused on the statistical analysis of debitage created during the experimental replication of stone tools using local chert cobbles. Special …

Chipped Stone Analysis Of The Yamashita Sites In Moapa Valley, Nevada: A Technological Organization Approach, Tatianna Menocal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Archaeological research on the lowland branch of the Virgin Branch Puebloan (VBP) has been conducted steadily throughout the 20th century. Much of this research occurred in the early half of the century with initial research conducted by Mark R. Harrington and later archaeology designed as salvage work due to public works projects, including the construction of Hoover Dam and the development of Lake Mead (Ahlstrom and Roberts 2012). The initial archaeology in the area was focused on classifying and characterizing the Puebloan occupation in the region, as the discovery of habitation sites in the area represented the farthest western extension …

Spatial Analysis Of Chipped Stone At The Cypro-Ppnb Site Of Krittou Marottou Ais Giorkis: A Gis-Assisted Study, Levi Lowell Keach

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Krittou Marottou Ais Giorkis (`Ais Giorkis) is an Aceramic Neolithic site, occupied approximately 9,500 cal B.P., and located in the western foothills of the Troodos Mountains on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. This thesis is an intra-site spatial analysis of the chipped stone assemblage recovered between 1997 and 2013 from the site using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. Previous work on the assemblage from 1997 through 2004 had attempted spatial analysis using traditional statistical methods and found no patterning (O'Horo 2008). Using the expanded database and GIS this thesis identifies multiple spatial patterns in the assemblage with implications on the …

Analysis Of Lithic Assemblages From Virgin Branch Puebloan Sites On The Shivwits Plateau, Thomas Carl Wambach

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Flaked stone technology, as with any utilitarian technology, is studied by archaeologists for a number of reasons. Often lithics are studied to understand the activities of a prehistoric group. Everything from the final product to the waste material can, when recovered in suitable amounts, reflect the conscious decisions of its creator. Understanding this helps to embed all stages of stone tool (lithic) use into aspects of human behavior and in understanding the organization of technology.

The Virgin Branch Puebloans are the westernmost sub-branch of the Ancestral Puebloan culture of the American Southwest. While some of their expanse has been studied …

Late Prehistoric Technology, Quartzite Procurement, And Land Use In The Upper Gunnison Basin, Colorado: View From Site 5gn1.2, Jonathan Mitchell Peart

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis presents the results from archaeological test excavations at site 5GN1.2. The focus of this research is to evaluate Stiger’s Late Prehistoric settlement-subsistence hypothesis. According to Stiger, post-3000 B.P. occupations of the Upper Gunnison Basin were limited to big-game hunting forays originating from base camps located outside of the basin. Test excavations at 5GN1.2 documented archaeological deposits reflecting aboriginal occupation during the Late Prehistoric between about 3000 and 1300 years ago. Archaeological features include four hearths associated with abundant small-mammal remains, burnt plant seeds, stone tools and stone tool manufacturing debris.

Archaeological evidence rules out site 5GN1.2 as a …