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ABSTRACTTopper is one of the largest buried Clovis sites in North America. The decades of archaeological excavations and analyses of Topper assemblages have informed our understanding of Clovis technology, mobility, settlement, and, more recently, chronology in the American Southeast. In this paper, we use spatial analysis to explore intra-site variation at Topper. We find that distance and elevation from the outcrop influenced the organization of core and biface reduction to some degree, as workshop areas were positioned close to the source. Other areas, closer to domestic spaces, were also provisioned with cores. Analysis of the Alluvial Terrace yielded evidence of spatially segregated campsite activities. The scale of excavation and the extent of the site vicinity – covering 629 m2and spanning multiple topographic features – offer an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the spatial organization of Clovis life at the quarry.

ABSTRACTThe Center for the Study of the First Americans (CSFA) is a collaboration of researchers focused on studying the peopling of the Americas and training students in the theory and methods necessary to address research questions regarding who were the first peoples to enter and spread throughout the American continents, when did they first arrive in the Americas, and from where did they come. This volume of PaleoAmericapresents seven papers that highlight research conducted by some of the graduates of the CSFA program, in a celebration of CSFA’s legacy and ongoing contribution to our understanding of the peopling of the Americas and Paleoindian archaeology.

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we use GIS and 2D geometric morphometrics to explore landscape use and social interaction among Kirk Cluster populations in the lower Ohio River valley. Using cultural transmission as a theoretical foundation, we develop models for identifying assemblages produced by macroband aggregations. We show that two distinct populations occupied northern Indiana and southwestern Kentucky. Intensively occupied sites in these areas are situated in near-upland settings in close proximity to a variety of resources including chert, higher order rivers, and sinkholes. In contrast, the Butterfield site in central Kentucky lies in the lowlands with the Green River as the only obvious resource. Analyses reveal that Butterfield was a macroband aggregation site visited by populations from Indiana, but groups from southwestern Kentucky only minimally participated in aggregations at Butterfield. Results further show that the Ohio River was not a barrier to social interaction in the Early Holocene.

ABSTRACTThe Early Holocene is a critical period in the American Southeast and represents the time between the end of the Pleistocene and emerging cultural complexity of the Mid-Holocene. Due to the limitations imposed by a relative lack of site preservation, an important avenue of inquiry for understanding this period has been connecting the few reported, well-dated sites with the distribution of surface finds to explore how people organized their mobility across landscapes. The most widely cited examples of studies examining Early Holocene landscape use in the region are Anderson and Hanson (1988), Daniel (2001), and Hollenbach (2009). In this article, we discuss the historical development of these three approaches to modeling landscape use and explore the impacts of these works in Southeastern archaeology. Finally, we introduce four articles that explore the applicability of these three approaches in Virginia (Gingerich, this issue), Florida (Halligan et al., this issue), the lower Ohio River valley (Jennings et al. this issue), and the upper Tombigbee River valley (Strawn et al., this issue).

ABSTRACTExperimental archaeology is a key component of research for reconstructing past human behaviors, and this approach has been a cornerstone for interpreting the earliest archaeological record in the Americas. In this paper, we survey the work of scholars who have used experimental archaeology to investigate the Paleoamerican stone tool record. We focus primarily on research published in the most recent decade. We organize our review according to four prevailing research themes: identifying objects intentionally made or modified by humans, measuring production efficiency, understanding projectile technologies, and reconstructing how tools were used. In each of these sections, we describe research questions and experimental designs and concisely summarize original investigators’ experimental results. Our hope is that this review will be a useful resource and inspire new experimental research.

ABSTRACTPaleoindian projectile points occur in high numbers in the American Southeast, and when compared to other regions of the East, the Southeast has the greatest projectile-point diversity. In this paper, we trace changes in elements of projectile-point design in the region to reconstruct the different evolutionary histories of specific point attributes and how these changes affected Paleoindian point design through time. With this approach, we consider the role of a mosaic pattern of change on the evolution of material culture. We address when and where certain aspects of point design were adopted and how these traits may have influenced point function. By tracing changes in specific technological design elements, we identify some of the social and adaptive processes that resulted in such great point diversity in the American Southeast.

Golondrina is a lanceolate point type linked to the Southeastern Dalton tradition that emerged during the Paleoindian to Archaic transition in southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. The type remains imprecisely dated because only a handful of sites have yielded Golondrina points in buried, dateable contexts, and the few radiocarbon dates from these sites often have relatively large standard deviations. In this paper, we present new radiocarbon dates from Greer's 1968 Texas Archeological Research Laboratory excavations at the Baker Cave site, Texas and present an analysis of artifacts from late Paleoindian/early Archaic contexts. A radiocarbon date from an excavation level that yielded a Golondrina point returned an age of 8910 ± 40 radiocarbon years before present, reducing prior imprecision and refining the age of the Golondrina occupation at Baker Cave. These results provide additional evidence that Golondrina, hypothesized to be culturally evolutionarily related to Dalton, represents a late regional expression of Dalton technologies.

•Comparing the effectiveness of modules to complete Clovis points in Geometric Morphometrics shape analysis.•Variation imposed by resharpened Clovis point-blades is a product of patterned cultural behavior.•Clovis fluted-point resharpening trajectories were culturally transmitted alongside manufacturing protocols.•Analysis of the complete point provides the most parsimonious representation of Clovis-point shape if the goal is to identify regional differences.

At the end of the Pleistocene, Dalton hunter-gatherers substantially altered their technology by crafting points with serrated, beveled, and tapered blade margins. The functions of these attributes have been the focus of a long-held debate. Some archaeologists argue that the variation was the result of resharpening and use in varied tasks, like cutting—showing an adaptive shift to processing smaller game like deer. Other researchers suggest these new attributes were designed from the outset for the single functional use as projectiles. In this study, we use actualistic experiments to build analogues for interpreting microscopic usewear traces on an archaeological Dalton point assemblage from the Brand site, Arkansas. We then consider changes in point functionality within the broader context of the organization of Dalton lithic technology and how these changes reflect adaptations to the emerging Holocene environment.