Toolkit Composition and Assemblage Variability: The Implications of Nogahabara I, Northern Alaska

2007 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 691-718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Odess ◽  
Jeffrey T. Rasic
Keyword(s):  
Small Group ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Lithic Assemblages ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Production Technologies ◽  
Northern Alaska

Nogahabara I is a late Pleistocene age archaeological site located in interior northwestern Alaska. In contrast to most archaeological assemblages left by mobile hunter-gatherers, which consist largely of manufacturing debris and a few worn or broken tools, the site contains 267 largely whole, useful tools, which we interpret as a lost or abandoned toolkit. As a snapshot of the tools carried by an individual or small group during an archaeological instant, the toolkit offers insights into specific technological behaviors and general processes that influence the formation of lithic assemblages. The toolkit exhibits a surprisingly wide range of tool forms and production technologies. It also shows direct archaeological evidence of transport and episodic use and maintenance of tools and cores. This evidence suggests intensive toolstone conservation that would have reduced the frequency with which toolkit depletion would have forced people to re-provision. One implication of these behaviors is that lithic assemblages left scattered across the landscape should be highly variable. Another is that there are profound differences between systemic toolkits and the archaeological assemblages from which they are derived.

scholarly journals The impact of environmental change on the use of early pottery by East Asian hunter-gatherers

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (31) ◽  
pp. 7931-7936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Lucquin ◽  
Harry K. Robson ◽  
Yvette Eley ◽  
Shinya Shoda ◽  
Dessislava Veltcheva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Strong Association ◽  
Residue Analysis ◽  
Technological Advancement ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Aquatic Resources ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Japanese Archipelago ◽  
The Impact

The invention of pottery was a fundamental technological advancement with far-reaching economic and cultural consequences. Pottery containers first emerged in East Asia during the Late Pleistocene in a wide range of environmental settings, but became particularly prominent and much more widely dispersed after climatic warming at the start of the Holocene. Some archaeologists argue that this increasing usage was driven by environmental factors, as warmer climates would have generated a wider range of terrestrial plant and animal resources that required processing in pottery. However, this hypothesis has never been directly tested. Here, in one of the largest studies of its kind, we conducted organic residue analysis of >800 pottery vessels selected from 46 Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene sites located across the Japanese archipelago to identify their contents. Our results demonstrate that pottery had a strong association with the processing of aquatic resources, irrespective of the ecological setting. Contrary to expectations, this association remained stable even after the onset of Holocene warming, including in more southerly areas, where expanding forests provided new opportunities for hunting and gathering. Nevertheless, the results indicate that a broader array of aquatic resources was processed in pottery after the start of the Holocene. We suggest this marks a significant change in the role of pottery of hunter-gatherers, corresponding to an increased volume of production, greater variation in forms and sizes, the rise of intensified fishing, the onset of shellfish exploitation, and reduced residential mobility.

Lithic assemblages from the Chang Tang Region, Northern Tibet

Antiquity ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (288) ◽  
pp. 319-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Jeffrey Brantingham ◽  
John W. Olsen ◽  
George B. Schaller
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Northern Tibet ◽  
Lithic Assemblages

Archaeological evidence from the Chang Tang Reserve suggests that humans may have first colonized the Tibetan Plateau during the late Pleistocene. Blade, bladelet and microblade technologies are found as surface assemblages in a variety of contexts above 4500 m elevation. The lack of modern analogues for foraging populations in high-elevation environments brings about a reconsideration of the diversity and organization of Pleistocene hunter-gatherer adaptations.

GEOLOGY AND PALEOENVIRONMENTS OF FARRE, A LARGE OPEN-AIR MIDDLE TO LATE PLEISTOCENE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE IN EAST AFRICA

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary E. Stinchcomb ◽  
◽  
William E. Lukens ◽  
Steven L. Forman ◽  
Katie M. Binetti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Archaeological Site

scholarly journals Late Pleistocene human paleoecology in the highland savanna ecosystem of mainland Southeast Asia

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kantapon Suraprasit ◽  
Rasmi Shoocongdej ◽  
Kanoknart Chintakanon ◽  
Hervé Bocherens
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Stable Carbon Isotope ◽  
Lower Latitude ◽  
Stable Carbon ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Carbon And Oxygen Isotope ◽  
Northwestern Thailand ◽  
Mainland Southeast Asia

AbstractThe late Pleistocene settlement of highland settings in mainland Southeast Asia by Homo sapiens has challenged our species’s ability to occupy mountainous landscapes that acted as physical barriers to the expansion into lower-latitude Sunda islands during sea-level lowstands. Tham Lod Rockshelter in highland Pang Mapha (northwestern Thailand), dated between 34,000 and 12,000 years ago, has yielded evidence of Hoabinhian lithic assemblages and natural resource use by hunter-gatherer societies. To understand the process of early settlements of highland areas, we measured stable carbon and oxygen isotope compositions of Tham Lod human and faunal tooth enamel. Our assessment of the stable carbon isotope results suggests long-term opportunistic behavior among hunter-gatherers in foraging on a variety of food items in a mosaic environment and/or inhabiting an open forest edge during the terminal Pleistocene. This study reinforces the higher-latitude and -altitude extension of a forest-grassland mosaic ecosystem or savanna corridor (farther north into northwestern Thailand), which facilitated the dispersal of hunter-gatherers across mountainous areas and possibly allowed for consistency in a human subsistence strategy and Hoabinhian technology in the highlands of mainland Southeast Asia over a 20,000-year span near the end of the Pleistocene.

scholarly journals The Technological Diversity of Lithic Industries in Eastern South America during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene Transition

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
João Carlos Moreno De Sousa
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Northeastern Brazil ◽  
Southern Brazil ◽  
Cultural Patterns ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Technological Diversity ◽  
Lithic Assemblages ◽  
Adjacent Part ◽  
Archaeological Cultures

Brazilian archaeological literature has insisted for decades upon associating hunter-gatherer sites dated to the Pleistocene–Holocene transition either to the Itaparica tradition, if located in central or northeastern Brazil, or to the Umbu tradition and Humaitá tradition, if located in southern Brazil, Uruguay, or any other adjacent part of Paraguay and Argentina. These associations have been based almost entirely on the presence or absence of lesmas and “projectile points,” regardless of their morphological and technological features. In the Uruguayan archaeological literature, three other cultures are recognised: Fell industry, Catalanense industry, and Tigre tradition, all in the Uruguayan region. However, the last 10 years of systematic studies on the lithic assemblages from these sites have shown that Paleoindian societies from Eastern South America are more culturally diverse than expected and that previously defined archaeological cultures present several issues in their definition, suggesting that many of these “traditions” are not valid and should no longer be used. Instead, new lithic industries and archaeological cultures should be defined only when cultural patterns are observable through systematic analyses.

scholarly journals Human social organization during the Late Pleistocene: Beyond the nomadic-egalitarian model

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manvir Singh ◽  
Luke Glowacki
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Human History ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Social Variation

Many researchers assume that until 10-12,000 years ago, humans lived in small, mobile, relatively egalitarian bands composed mostly of kin. This “nomadic-egalitarian model” informs evolutionary explanations of behavior and our understanding of how contemporary societies differ from those of our evolutionary past. Here, we synthesize research challenging this model and propose an alternative, the diverse histories model, to replace it. We outline the limitations of using recent foragers as models of Late Pleistocene societies and the considerable social variation among foragers commonly considered small-scale, mobile, and egalitarian. We review ethnographic and archaeological findings covering 34 world regions showing that non-agricultural peoples often live in groups that are more sedentary, unequal, large, politically stratified, and capable of large-scale cooperation and resource management than is normally assumed. These characteristics are not restricted to extant Holocene hunter-gatherers but, as suggested by archaeological findings from 27 Middle Stone Age sites, likely characterized societies throughout the Late Pleistocene (until c. 130 ka), if not earlier. These findings have implications for how we understand human psychological adaptations and the broad trajectory of human history.

Hunter–gatherer subsistence at the end of the Pleistocene: preliminary results from Picareiro Cave, Central Portugal

Antiquity ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (285) ◽  
pp. 500-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuno Ferreira Bicho ◽  
Bryan Hockett ◽  
Jonathan Haws ◽  
William Belcher
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
Central Portugal ◽  
Preliminary Study

Excavation at the site of Picareiro Cave in Portugal provides an important and rare sample of animal remains. Preliminary study shows that late Pleistocene hunter–gatherers hunted rabbits, deer and a wide variety of fauna, perhaps during seasonal occupation of the cave.

scholarly journals Procurement and mobility during the Late Pleistocene: Characterising the stone-tool assemblage of the Picamoixons site (Tarragona, NE Iberian Peninsula)

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
María Soto
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Petrographic Analysis ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Ne Iberian Peninsula

The Picamoixons site is a rockshelter located in the province of Tarragona (NE Iberian Peninsula). It was object of two rescue campaigns during 1988 and 1993, which led to the recovery of a complete archaeological assemblage, including stone tools as well as faunal and portable art remains that date the occupation to the 14th to 11th millennium BP (calibrated). This study involves a petrographic characterisation of the stone-tool assemblage in order to establish: 1) the procurement areas, 2) the raw materials management strategies and 3) the mobility radius and territorial sizes of the hunter-gatherers groups that occupied the site. The method applied comprises in a multiscale analysis that includes systematic prospection, the petrographic characterisation of geological and archaeological samples, an analysis of the chert types represented in the knapping sequence, and the definition of the mobility axes and areas frequented according to lithic procurement.A petrographic analysis of the chert in the prospected area led to the definition of nine macroscopic varieties related to five types (Vilaplana, Morera, Maset, Vilella and Tossa cherts), related to Lower and Upper Muschelkalk (Triassic), Lutetian, Bartonian (Palaeocene) and Sannonian (Oligocene) deposits.The study of the knapping sequences indicates the main exploitation of Bartonian cherts (Tossa type), and the use of Lutetian cherts (Maset and Morera types) for configuring retouched tools. The exploitation of the remaining raw material types identified is considered sporadic and opportunistic.Defining the procurement areas enabled the mobility radius to be assessed as between 3 and 30 km, highlighting the importance of the fluvial basins as natural movement pathways. The results indicate that the main procurement territory was 16 km2 in area, associable with a forager radius. The most remote procurement distances suggest a maximum exploitation area of 260 km2, defining an intra-regional range. This range presents parallelisms with various contemporaneous hunter-gatherers groups in Western Europe, suggesting a progressive mobility reduction dynamic during the Late Pleistocene-Initial Holocene.

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