Lithic Analysis of Projectile Points from Yerba Buena, Chiapas, Mexico

1982 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
Douglas Donne Bryant
Keyword(s):  
Lithic Analysis ◽  
Projectile Points

MORPHOMETRIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES OF WESTERN STEMMED TRADITION PROJECTILE POINTS REVEALED IN A SECOND ARTIFACT CACHE FROM THE COOPER'S FERRY SITE, IDAHO

2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 536-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loren G. Davis ◽  
Daniel W. Bean ◽  
Alexander J. Nyers
Keyword(s):  
Great Plains ◽  
Lithic Technology ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Lithic Analysis ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Lithic Assemblages ◽  
Lithic Reduction ◽  
Digital Scanning ◽  
Western Stemmed Tradition

In western North America, the Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) is contemporaneous with, but technologically different from, the Clovis Paleoindian Tradition as initially defined from the Great Plains and American Southwest. The foundational principles of WST lithic technology have not been as clearly delineated as those of their fluted and unfluted Paleoindian Tradition technological counterparts, largely due to the paucity of extensive WST lithic assemblages recovered from intact buried contexts. Recent excavations at the Cooper's Ferry site, located in western Idaho, revealed a stratified series of WST components spanning the late Pleistocene to early Holocene periods. The study of these components offers a unique opportunity to evaluate current expectations about WST lithic technology. Here, we describe the discovery, context, and contents of a new cache of 14 WST projectile points from the Cooper's Ferry site that provide clues about WST lithic reduction patterns and the design of early stemmed projectile points. We employ several novel methods of lithic analysis based on three-dimensional digital scanning technology and geometric morphometry and, in doing so, seek to demonstrate new ways of studying stone tools through the use of next-generation methods of lithic analysis applied to exploring the poorly known technological details of the WST.

Exchange Systems in Late Postclassic Mesoamerica: Comparing Open and Restricted Markets at Tlaxcallan, Mexico, and Santa Rita Corozal, Belize

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 780-799
Author(s):  
Marc D. Marino ◽  
Lane F. Fargher ◽  
Nathan J. Meissner ◽  
Lucas R. Martindale Johnson ◽  
Richard E. Blanton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Action Theory ◽  
Ethnically Diverse ◽  
Market Development ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Open Market ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
The Social ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Open Markets ◽  
Social Sectors

In premodern economic systems where the social embedding of exchange provided actors with the ability to control or monopolize trade, including the goods that enter and leave a marketplace, “restricted markets” formed. These markets produced external revenues that could be used to achieve political goals. Conversely, commercialized systems required investment in public goods that incentivize the development of market cooperation and “open markets,” where buyers and sellers from across social sectors and diverse communities could engage in exchange as economic equals within marketplaces. In this article, we compare market development at the Late Postclassic sites of Chetumal, Belize, and Tlaxcallan, Mexico. We identified a restricted market at Chetumal, using the distribution of exotic goods, particularly militarily and ritually charged obsidian projectile points; in contrast, an open market was built at Tlaxcallan. Collective action theory provides a useful framework to understand these differences in market development. We argue that Tlaxcaltecan political architects adopted more collective strategies, in which open markets figured, to encourage cooperation among an ethnically diverse population.

scholarly journals Matching Pragmatic Lithic Analysis and Proper Data Architecture

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Daniel A. Contreras ◽  
Zachary Batist ◽  
Ciara Zogheib ◽  
Tristan Carter
Keyword(s):  
Data Structure ◽  
Lithic Analysis ◽  
Database Construction ◽  
Data Architecture ◽  
R Shiny ◽  
Database Interface ◽  
Archaeological Project ◽  
Existing Data

Abstract The documentation and analysis of archaeological lithics must navigate a basic tension between examining and recording data on individual artifacts or on aggregates of artifacts. This poses a challenge both for artifact processing and for database construction. We present here an R Shiny solution that enables lithic analysts to enter data for both individual artifacts and aggregates of artifacts while maintaining a robust yet flexible data structure. This takes the form of a browser-based database interface that uses R to query existing data and transform new data as necessary so that users entering data of varying resolutions still produce data structured around individual artifacts. We demonstrate the function and efficacy of this tool (termed the Queryable Artifact Recording Interface [QuARI]) using the example of the Stelida Naxos Archaeological Project (SNAP), which, focused on a Paleolithic and Mesolithic chert quarry, has necessarily confronted challenges of processing and analyzing large quantities of lithic material.

Functional Interpretations from Microscopic Analysis

1971 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Nance
Keyword(s):  
Functional Analysis ◽  
Functional Significance ◽  
Microscopic Analysis ◽  
Projectile Point ◽  
Central California ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Late Horizon ◽  
Binocular Microscope

AbstractFor many years, small, serrated, obsidian artifacts characteristic of late central California cultural manifestations (Late Horizon), have been regarded as projectile points (arrow and dart points). A functional analysis of a number of these tools based on examination with a binocular microscope revealed evidence of wear patterns including striations which makes it quite clear that these artifacts were used for other purposes. This brings the projectile point interpretation up for serious questioning, at least for the area under consideration. It is suggested that further investigation of artifact assemblages, using similar methods, will in all likelihood alter many existing ideas regarding the functional significance of many artifact types. It is further pointed out that many times discrepancies exist between ethnographic accounts and other sources of data relative to the functional significance of artifacts.

A Workshop Site of Early Man in Dinwiddie County, Virginia

1951 ◽  
Vol 17 (1Part1) ◽  
pp. 9-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben C. Mccary
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Rare Type ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Fluted Points

David I. Bushnell, Jr., first aroused wide interest in the fluted points found in Virginia. He accomplished this primarily by an article in the June 9, 1934 issue of the Literary Digest, in which he announced the discovery of “two Folsom points” in Virginia. This article and subsequent references to these two “points of recognized Folsom type” (Bushnell, 1935, pp. 35-6, 56) called special attention to the importance and possibilities of such finds in the East. In 1934, only one collector of Virginia projectile points, Arthur Robertson of Chase City, Virginia, could claim “five or more” of these fluted points (Wells, 1935, pp. 1, 14). However, the intense interest which Bushnell created stimulated a search in Virginia for this rare type of point, with the result that shortly after Bushnell's 1934 announcement, sporadic finds of fluted points having a resemblance to both the Folsom Fluted and the Clovis Fluted began to be noted in various parts of the State. Their occurrence seemed to indicate that there actually was a paleo-Indian in Virginia.

scholarly journals Assessing Hafting Adhesive Efficiency in the Experimental Shooting of Projectile Points: A new Device for Instrumented and Ballistic Experiments

Archaeometry ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Gaillard ◽  
L. Chesnaux ◽  
M. Girard ◽  
A. Burr ◽  
E. Darque-Ceretti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Projectile Points ◽  
New Device

Phylogenetic and morphometric analyses of Eastern fluted-point forms

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Matthew T. Boulanger
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Selective Pressure ◽  
Cladistic Analysis ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Character State ◽  
State Change ◽  
University Of Missouri ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Morphometric Analyses ◽  
The University

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This dissertation constitutes two mutually complementary approaches to the study of Paleoindian material culture in eastern North America, ca. 13,500-10,500 calendar years before present. Archaeologists have long held that the East contains a substantially greater degree of morphological variation in Paleoindian point forms, though precisely why this is the case has rarely been explained. It is also unclear how many of the various point forms relate to each other in an evolutionary sense--which forms are derived from which, and why? Morphological analyses are conducted on a large sample of intact Paleoindian projectile points from across the East. I use paradigmatic classification to establish classes for use in a cladistic analysis to evaluate heritable continuity within the sample. Results of this analysis suggest that shape and form of Paleoindian projectile points changed in a more-or-less stochastic fashion across space, and evidence for strong selective pressure is limited. Findings concerning the process of character-state change suggest that some characters become fixed early in the evolution of points, whereas others appear to change frequently. The results of this study demonstrate that changes in Paleoindian projectile points can be explained within a cultural-evolution framework.

Experimental and Archaeological Verification of an Index of Retouch for Hafted Bifaces

2006 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 743-757 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Andrefsky
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Data Set ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Projectile Points

The relative amount of retouch on stone tools is central to many archaeological studies linking stone tool assemblages to broader issues of human social and economic land-use strategies. Unfortunately, most retouch measures deal with flake and blade tools and few (if any) have been developed for hafted bifaces and projectile points. This paper introduces a new index for measuring and comparing amount of retouch on hafted bifaces and projectile points that can be applied regardless of size or typological variance. The retouch index is assessed initially with an experimental data set of hafted bifaces that were dulled and resharpened on five occasions. The retouch index is then applied to a hafted biface assemblage made from tool stone that has been sourced by X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF). Results of both assessments show that the hafted biface retouch index (HRI) is effective for determining the amount of retouch and the degree to which the hafted bifaces have been curated.

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