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This article presents the results of research carried out at two previously unreported Eastern Desert Atbara River project (EDAR) Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites—EDAR 134 and EDAR 155. Luminescence dating results indicate human activity in this area during the Marine Isotope Stage 5 period (MIS 5), approximately 90 kya. Discussion concerning the affiliation of both analyzed inventories will be provided, including another MSA site from the EDAR area, where an assemblage dated to MIS 6/5e does not have technological features known from other technocomplexes in the eastern Sahara region (EDAR 135). Microscopic analysis of traces of tool use for the EDAR 155 assemblage shows the high impact of post-depositional (aeolian) processes on the state of preservation of lithic material. Sites EDAR 134 and 155 provide evidence for hominin activity during the late Pleistocene within an area only episodically accessible, due to arid conditions prevailing in the Saharan deserts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating the links between South American Amerindian ontologies and the contextual study of knapped lithic technology is the main goal of this paper. To this end, we focus on a study case from eastern Catamarca province, Argentina, during the 1st millennium A.D. We identified projectile points in only one context, a rock art rock shelter (Oyola 7), while in other archaeological sites in the area, we have not recorded this type of stone tool. Drawing on ethnohistoric and ethnographic data regarding the connection between arrows and shamanic practices of illness and healing, we propose considering the agencies of these objects, as well as their intrinsic danger and their multiple possibilities of affecting beyond their traditional functional interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major changes in lithic technologies are often explained by either migration or crisis. Here we argue that continuity and minor adjustments in lithic production can tell equally dramatic tales of altered social situations. We base our interpretations on identified lithic blade production concepts and raw materials at 30 sites dating 7500–5000BC, i.e. from before and after the massive Storegga tsunami hit the coast of western South-Norway around 6150BC. Regional continuation, but also local variations in lithic production are interpreted inspired by a machine-oriented ontological framework. The tsunami disrupts the environment, society and its lithic traditions are affected. Although no immediate major breaks are observed, sometime after the tsunami, societies or lithic production as ‘machines’ in separate regions had begun to hum to different tunes. We suggest that variation in tsunami impact had created differing local social contexts which in turn pushed the lithic traditions down diverging paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eastern Africa maintains a key position in debates surrounding the emergence of Homo sapiens across Africa. Extensive research in the region has revealed a rich fossil record in association with a 'generic' but variable Middle Stone Age (MSA) material culture, providing an important laboratory for testing hypotheses about the behavioural evolution of our species. For example, multiple archaeological studies of the eastern African MSA note a link between the distribution and density of sites, archaeological diversity and environmental conditions, with ecology and demography often cited as key drivers of cultural evolution. This article formulates new hypotheses using theoretical models of complex fitness landscapes of evolution and reviews the archaeological and climatic records of Middle-late Pleistocene eastern Africa in the light of these ideas. It proposes that evidence from eastern Africa implicates much of the region as a refugial zone within Pleistocene Africa, providing consistently suitable conditions for survival that were characterised by high and changing biodiversity, facilitating population growth and interconnectivity as well as material culture diversification. Interactions between different evolutionary processes likely resulted in the complex cultural mosaic observed across Africa, including the appearance of 'specific' innovations against a backdrop of more 'generic' MSA elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In southern Africa, the Howiesons Poort is one of the earliest technocomplexes in which small blades and bladelets were systematically produced and retouched into formal tools. While the presence of small lithic artefacts in an assemblage is welldocumented, little is known about production pathways. This paper reports on the analysis of the lithic assemblage from Horizon 6/7 of Charles Keller's excavations of Montagu Cave, South Africa, to evaluate how raw material and decision-making affects the size of stone tools in Howiesons Poort assemblages. It addresses the following questions: how were small blades produced? Was it a deliberate choice or a constraint imposed by raw material availability? Results show branching modes of production for large and small blanks beginning with raw material acquisition. The independent production of small blanks is reinforced by the presence of cores on flakes in the assemblage. However, a relatively standardised core reduction process was used consistently, regardless of core size. The main technological and typological features observed in Horizon 6/7 are in line with other known Howiesons Poort assemblages. Considered as a whole, these observations highlight the consistency of Howiesons Poort blade technology and the deliberate production of small blanks and tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chaco Canyon in New Mexico was the center of an extensive regional cultural system. The strength of Chaco's regional interactions has been partly defined by the presence of non–local goods including obsidian. We take a diachronic look at Chaco obsidian use from AD 500–1250 using the largest sample of XRF sourced obsidian available to date and combine this with technological analyses to identify significant changes in where and how Chacoans obtained and used obsidian. In the AD 700s obsidian from the more distant Jemez Mountains began to supplant the closer Mt. Taylor obsidian. The obsidian is of roughly equal quality, suggesting this shift relates to social factors and not raw material constraints. We find more variation over time in obsidian source use and acquisition strategies than previously noted. The patterning appears to relate to regional and local cultural diversity, social and organizational heterogeneity, and the development of new exchange networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 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). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We draw on the distribution of recorded archaeological sites, temporally diagnostic projectile points, sources of lithic raw materials, and fossil pollen projections to evaluate existing models for Early Holocene landscape use in the upper Tombigbee River valley (UTRV) in northeast Mississippi. We then discuss the applicability of Anderson and Hanson (1988), Daniel (2001), and Hollenbach (2009) in gaining a better understanding of early hunter-gatherer mobility and settlement in the region and discuss future directions for research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Māori discovered and used a range of obsidian sources throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Temporal patterns in the economic use of obsidian are investigated with geochemical data, a technological analysis, and use-wear analysis of obsidian artifacts. We examined 11 metrics related to geologic source, flake size, fragmentation ratio, and use-wear on assemblages of artifacts over 20 mm in size from seven North Island assemblages dating to the Early/Middle (AD 1250–1600) and Late (post-AD 1600) periods. Sites are in three locations, Ahuahu Great Mercury Island, Pouerua, and Kohikia. We begin by examining change over time from the Early/Middle to Late Period in a single location—Ahuahu Great Mercury Island—then consider Late Period geographic variation in obsidian economization across all three locations. The technical analysis results, including the size of artifacts and fragmentation ratios of assemblages, support the proposal that obsidian was used more economically later in time. Use-wear metrics generally indicate greater economization of material in the Early/Middle Period. While reuse of artifacts and post-depositional damage are compounding underdetermined factors, the analysis documents a shift in the type of economization of obsidian in Aotearoa New Zealand from conservation focused on the maximization of use (Early/Middle) to the maximization of the number of artifacts (Late). We speculate that this may be due to population increase resulting in a larger number of people to provision with obsidian, and decreased direct access to raw material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Late Upper Palaeolithic Hamburgian tradition reflects the earliest known human presence in northern Europe after the Last Glacial Maximum. We report here on the open-air site of Jels 3 (Denmark) and its associated stone tool assemblage, which can be unambiguously attributed to this period. Along with only a handful of other sites, Jels 3 represents the northernmost limits of human expansion in Europe at this time. We conduct a technological analysis of the lithic material from Jels 3 and other relevant sites to shed new light on the behavioral processes that likely underwrote this expansion. Given that sites dating to this initial dispersal remain few, are restricted to certain geographic regions, and represent an overall lack of a well-developed settlement hierarchy, we suggest that this dispersal process is most commensurable with the earlier stages of a leap-frogging colonization targeting specific landscape elements and that it was quite possibly very short-lived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The occupation of Buang Merabak, a cave located on the island of New Ireland, by 42,000 years ago demonstrates that the colonisation of the Bismarck Archipelago occurred soon after that of Sahul. This provides the opportunity to consider the adaptation of small groups of people to a depauperate island environment. An analysis of a lithic assemblage from Buang Merabak was used to consider how technological organisation reflects changing patterns of site use and subsistence strategies from the late Pleistocene through to the early Holocene. A strategy of small simple flake technology was identified, which would have allowed site occupants flexibility in the face of fluctuating patterns of faunal resource use. During the late Pleistocene, a broad range of local lithic materials were used expediently. Gradual change occurred in the early Holocene to a smaller variety of materials with dominant use of local chert flakes and conservation of specific volcanic materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Middle Stone Age (MSA) lithic artefacts coming from dated layers preserved in their original stratigraphic position are still rare in Northeast Africa in general and in Sudan in particular. This paper aims to present the results of technological and functional analyses of an assemblage coming from a stratigraphic context, i.e. the upper level of the EDAR (Eastern Desert – Atbara River) 135 site, discovered in an abandoned gold mining pit in the Sudanese Eastern Desert, approximately 70 km east of the town of Atbara. The assemblage, which is based on locally available quartz and rhyolite, comes from a layer bracketed by OSL dates of 116 ± 13 and 125 ± 11 kya. Such dating places it within Marine Isotope Stage 5e–5d. Analysis of the assemblage revealed several characteristics that seem to set it apart from other MSA Northeast African inventories. Among these, the dominance of simple, non-predetermined core reduction strategies and expedient tool types, coupled with the lack of traces of Nubian Levallois technique, are the most conspicuous. Micro-traces of use on animal and plant matter were preserved on some of the tools. EDAR 135 is part of a newly discovered complex of sites that confirms the presence of Middle and Late Pleistocene hominins along one of the possible routes out of Africa towards Eurasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The end of the Middle Stone Age in southern Africa, often called the final MSA (∼40–28 ka), represents one of the most understudied technocomplexes in this part of the world. Researchers have often focused on earlier time periods associated with Marine Isotope Stage 4 or have emphasised the transition between the Middle and the Later Stone Age. Thus, the final MSA has been poorly understood and, at least in KwaZulu-Natal, only a few chrono-cultural markers called hollow-based points are known for it. Since 2016, excavations at Umbeli Belli rock shelter have produced new insights into this period. The site provides one of the most accurately dated sequences for the final MSA, spanning four geological horizons, respectively GH7, GH8, GH9 and GH10, that date to between 29.9 ± 2.3 and 40.3 ± 3.5 ka. Significant technological and typological variations are evident between those horizons, raising questions about the mechanisms behind them. A direct comparative analysis with the final MSA layers Coffee – Espresso at Sibhudu, which date to ∼38 ka, places these results in the regional archaeological context. The analysis shows first that the final MSA encompasses diachronic variability within relatively short time frames at Umbeli Belli. Secondly, it reveals several distinct chronological discrepancies between Sibhudu and Umbeli Belli. A detailed review of the environmental setting of the research area helps to explain these changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the finding of a lithic projectile point at more than 100 meters depth in the Beagle Channel (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina) in relation to submerged landscapes. On the one hand, this underwater evidence is examined as part of an inundated archaeological landscape supporting the hypothesized Pleistocene coastal dispersion in southern South America. On the other hand, the lithic projectile point is evaluated as a submerged isolated artefact as the result of human movements through aquatic environments due to foraging and transport practices in the sea during the Holocene. Technological properties and post-depositional modifications of the projectile point are described, and the artefact location is assessed in light of paleogeographic models. The presented evidence does not support an early human occupation in the region, but the particular archaeological detection offers insights to the alternative explanation, and to the potential of underwater explorations in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of the analysis of a late Acheulean horizon from the EDAR 135 site, which was discovered in the Eastern Desert, Sudan, in an area heavily transformed by modern mining activity. A lithic assemblage was discovered there, within a layer of gravel sediments formed by a paleostream in a humid period of the Middle Pleistocene. This layer is OSL dated between 220 ± 12 and 145 ± 20 ka (MIS 7a/6). These dates indicate that the assemblage could be the youngest trace of the Acheulean in northeastern Africa. Technological analysis of the lithics reveals different core reduction strategies, including not only ad hoc ones based on multiplatform cores, but also discoidal and prepared cores. The use of prepared core reduction methods has already been confirmed at other Late Acheulean sites in Africa and the Middle East. Microwear traces observed on lithic artifacts could relate to on-site butchering activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition from the dart to the arrow, and the commensurate changes in lithic technology is poorly understood in the American Southwest. This transition has often been linked to shifts in sedentism and the increasing use of expedient flake tools. However, the relationship between the use of bifacial and core reduction strategies are conditioned by a variety of factors, and not primarily in response to the use of the bow-and-arrow, or simply sedentism. We, therefore, evaluate a series of potential factors which can be used to understand the variability exhibited in the use of biface and flake technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fox site (5WL8848) is a collection of Clovis artifacts from the Kersey Terrace in northern Colorado. In the early 1970s, land-leveling for the construction of a large turkey farm near the town of Kersey revealed chipped stone tools in eolian sand dune sediments at the southern margin of the Kersey Terrace of the South Platte River. Max Fox and other employees of the turkey farm collected three complete Clovis projectile points, several fragmentary points, bifaces, and flake tools at the site. Fox forwarded information about the site to professional archaeologists in the early 1990s, but it was largely ignored after a brief geoarchaeological investigation. The Fox site contains a moderate frequency of chipped stone tools relative to other known Clovis assemblages in Colorado's South Platte River basin, and it is located within a concentration of Paleoindian kill-butchery sites on the Kersey Terrace. Despite several contextual issues the Fox site is a significant contribution to the Clovis record of Colorado. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents technological and iconographic analyses of a Late Classic (a.d. 600–830) lithics cache recovered from the ancient Maya site of Blue Creek, Belize. The cache consisted of 21 obsidian prismatic blades and a number of chert artifacts, including 21 stemmed bifaces, a large laurel leaf biface, and a tridentate eccentric. The technological analysis of the stemmed bifaces identified three distinct stem production techniques that may be attributable to a combination of idiosyncratic knapping gestures and laterality, or handedness. A survey of Maya iconography demonstrated that large laurel-leaf bifaces and tridentate eccentrics occur in scenes depicting sacrifice and the burning of human remains, often by ritual specialists titled ch'ajoom, or "person of incense." It is suggested that the presence of a large laurel-leaf biface and tridentate eccentric in the cache may indicate that Blue Creek was the residence of ch'ajoom at some point during the Late Classic period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a century, archaeologists have puzzled over the enigma of successful whaling unfolding with no predecessors prior to the last two millennia. The emergence of social complexity is linked with the appearance of the Old Bering Sea (OBS) aesthetic engraved on walrus ivory implements found in sites with large cemeteries and thick middens. Significantly, many OBS sites co-occur with major haulout locations for Pacific walrus, whose procurement engendered relationships that, along with seafaring or hunting technology, were the pivotal drivers that fostered whaling. Our revision of extant 14C assays to correct for marine carbon produces a younger 'Low' chronology placing the OBS florescence between AD 650–1250, with its earliest phase Okvik and allied Ipiutak communities from AD 300 to 600. The lithic technology of OBS is distinctive in its notched bifaces with affinities to 3000-year-old Chukchi Archaic assemblages. Later influences on OBS development include Ipiutak lithic technology and suggest migration, and either adversarial, or trading relationships with Alaska. The acquisition of rare commodities (driftwood, iron and obsidian) contributed to differential success and resulted in inequality recorded in burials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent syntheses for the Long Island Sound region argue for long-term cultural continuity amongst Holocene coastal hunter-gatherers. These notions derive primarily from studies of quartz lithic assemblages, which archaeologists argue show structural stasis over time. The remaining variability is explained with a 'distance to source' model in which near-coastal sites tend to show a lack of quartz conservation while interior sites show quartz recycling. Under this model, technological strategies traditionally associated with raw material conservation (e.g., bipolar reduction) should not occur at near-coastal sites. We test the 'distance to source' model by reexamining a quartz lithic assemblage from Eagle's Nest-Long Island's richest Holocene coastal hunter-gatherer site. We find conclusive evidence for bipolar reduction in the site's "block/shatter" materials. Toolmakers used bipolar reduction to conserve raw material. Toolmakers also used anvils and bipolar reduction to open quartz cobbles, to stabilize freehand cores, to efficiently access cutting edges, and possibly to create crushed coarse quartz temper for pottery production. Our results point to previously unrecognized aspects of behavioral variability in the Eagle's Nest lithic assemblage and to possible revision of the 'distance to source' model. Similar variability may be present at other North American sites with quartz "block/shatter" material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the site of Steenbokfontein 9KR, virtually 80% of the lithic blanks presented retouch—an extreme proportion for Middle Stone Age assemblages. The high percentage of putative retouch led us to investigate whether post-depositional processes played a role in the preservation of the lithic assemblage. We designed and performed an experiment that reproduced all the archaeological conditions inferred from the site formation analyses to determine if the archaeological assemblage was trampled or retouched. We defined several qualitative attributes and studied both trampled and retouched experimental samples, and compared them to the archaeological material. We subsequently performed different statistical analyses and a correspondence analysis with all the macro qualitative attributes that we defined. We were then able to discern which attributes were the most eloquent variables and assess the usefulness of a multivariate analysis in discriminating between trampling and retouch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following my original paper on the history of the concept of the chaîne opératoire, Audouze and some colleagues responded by accusing me of being biased and defamatory in my exposé. In my response here I offer further evidence in support of my argument and, most importantly, suggest that the concept of the chaîne opératoire (1) is not the creation of a single man – André Leroi-Gourhan – but should be considered as the product of a time and a state of mind shared by many researchers; and (2) was introduced to prehistory (and lithic studies) by Jacques Tixier and Daniel Cahen in the late 1970s, independently of the complex filiation from ethnology to prehistory on the side of Leroi-Gourhan's. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understandings of past human behaviour in southern Africa are hampered by a site-based approach to prehistoric technological systems that relies on spatially isolated samples from one or a few key ‘type-sites’. Lithic technological behaviour, however, was a landscape-scale process with raw material acquisition, reduction, transportation, use, maintenance and discard taking place at varied locations. This study takes a landscape approach to the investigation of Early Later Stone Age (ELSA) technology on the Doring River by exploring two points in what we believe to be one system. It compares data from an open-air lithic scatter from Uitspankraal 7 (UPK7) located on the Doring, the major river and lithic source in the area, with a published rockshelter sample from Putslaagte 8 (PL8) located 2 km from the Doring and 15 km to the northwest of UPK7. Differences between the two assemblages support a scenario in which hornfels blades and flakes were produced at the river and transported into the surrounding landscape, with limited transportation of cores. Intriguingly little evidence of quartz-bipolar reduction was found in the open-air sample at UPK7, raising the possibility that different ELSA technological components were organised in distinct patterns across the landscape. Results suggest that the composition of ELSA assemblages is highly situational, with proportions of quartz and/or bipolar technology, for instance, appearing responsive to local context. Overall, this study highlights the importance of taking a landscape-orientated approach to investigating the nature and cause of continuity and variability in the archaeological record. Such an approach will inevitably lead to a more comprehensive understanding of early LSA technology, behaviour and land-use patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of the chaîne opératoire was popularized in the English-speaking world for the first time in the Archaeological Review from Cambridge in 1990. At that time, the history of the integration of this concept into French prehistory had begun. It would take a few years for this process to be successfully completed and more years for the history of research in lithic technology to take this into account. However, the concept and its history have, since the 1990s, been the subject of particularly intriguing writing and rewriting issues. This article presents the state of knowledge on this matter 1) by exposing what could be called the 'official' version of this history and 2) by correcting it with concrete historiographical facts gathered in the literature. In doing so, it also speculates on the context and motivations of scholars involved in these projects of writing the concept of the chaîne opératoire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stratified rockshelter deposits form the most important source of information on the prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the Namibian Holocene Later Stone Age (LSA). This paper reports on two new test excavations conducted at rockshelters in the Sesfontein area in northwestern Namibia in 2005. Both archaeological sites are located between two archaeologically well researched regions, to the north Kunene and to the south the Brandberg and Erongo. Although the stratigraphies are rather problematic with regard to taphonomic integrity, their study identifies information that can be reliably used in order to contribute to our knowledge of prehistoric LSA hunter-gatherer societies in Namibia. The cultural material is examined in relation to available environmental, contextual and taphonomic data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Badger Springs site (AZ D:5:13; NA10924) is a late Paleoindian occupation located on the Kaibito Plateau in northeastern Arizona, just northwest of Black Mesa. The site was discovered and surface-collected in the 1970s. Quantitative analyses conducted as part of this research revealed that the Badger Springs projectile points are morphologically consistent with projectile points of the Angostura type. Previous archaeological investigations have failed to identify late Paleoindian campsites, especially Angostura occupations, on the southwestern Colorado Plateau. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we present a morphological analysis of projectile points from the Badger Springs site in northeastern Arizona using quantitative methods developed by Pitblado [Pitblado, Bonnie L. 2007 Angostura, Jimmy Allen, Foothills-Mountain: Clarifying Terminology for Late Paleoindian Southern Rocky Mountain Spear Points. In Frontiers in Colorado Paleoindian Archaeology, edited by R. H. Brunswig and B. L. Pitblado. University Press of Colorado, Boulder] to determine point type and, therefore, probable adaptive strategy. Second, we discuss the implications of the presence of a late Paleoindian Angostura occupation on the southwestern Colorado Plateau and the Badger Springs assemblage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the Palaeolithic and across the globe small, regular cores were made using bipolar techniques, in which the object was placed between an anvil and hammer. While there has been much discussion about whether they might have been used as tools or were debris from a manufacturing process it is likely that both are true in different locations and at different times. What is distinctive about the bipolar technique is that it allows knappers to work artefacts down to a very small size, and this may facilitate the extension of both core life and tool life. In this article a model of that miniaturization process is evaluated against Holocene material from Australia and Middle Stone Age material from South Africa. It is likely that the capacity to miniaturize lithic artefacts would have been valuable in a variety of Palaeolithic contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Geib has recently argued that there are major differences between the ways that Archaic and Basketmaker II (BM II) peoples made projectile points, namely that BM II peoples used indirect punches and wide compound pressure flakers to produce very thin, broad bifaces. We build on this analysis by measuring six attributes related to flake scar morphology on samples of Archaic and BM II bifaces from Cedar Mesa, Utah. The differences between the two groups for each variable are strongly statistically significant. Metric multidimensional scaling of these attributes reveals clear differences between Archaic and BM II bifaces based on flake scars and also allows us to detect previously misclassified artifacts. We suggest that the BM II tradition of making bifaces and points with indirect punches and compound flakers is an example of enculturated style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differences in Paleoindian projectile point morphology have previously been used to define technologies, infer colonization patterns, propose chronological and regional boundaries. In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness of traditional linear measurements and ratios, flake scar angles, and 3D model-based flake contours for the statistical differentiation of projectile point type(s) and reduction technique. Sixty-three fluted bifaces from eastern North America and fourteen replicate Clovis points are analyzed. Discriminant analysis shows that 3D model-based Fourier descriptors of flake scar contours are less successful than traditional metrics in correctly differentiating styles, but more successful in identifying individual knappers. Changes in the symmetry of front and back flake scars between Clovis and later fluted point styles indicate a possible shift in reduction techniques. These findings demonstrate the usefulness of both traditional and modern morphometric variables to quantify biface morphology, and address questions about social interaction and technological change in Pleistocene North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of shape is central to the classification of material culture. In the case of lithic technology, archaeologists have attempted to characterize shape quantitatively and qualitatively using diverse methods ranging from manual caliper measurements and metric ratios to digital artifact scans and statistical analyses. Three-dimensional modeling has opened up new avenues for shape analysis that permit a more holistic perspective on how objects occupy space. As a result, researchers are able to explore new qualities of artifacts that were previously inaccessible through more traditional shape analyses. This paper outlines a new method for quantifying distribution of mass in lithic specimens from three-dimensional point-cloud data. Radial point distributions (RPDs) are calculated from point-filled models based on the distances of each point to the model centroid. The resulting distribution data provide a means of quantifying three-dimensional shape that is readily compared through statistical analyses. RPD calculation requires no manual specimen alignment or landmark identification, thereby removing major sources of subjectivity. It is argued that RPDs provide a means of quantifying the ‘balance’ of lithic specimens, such as handaxes, allowing researchers to explore this tactile aspect of stone tools in conjunction with more traditional visual aspects of shape. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper we present a new method for inferring handedness from lithic evidence. The study was conducted by means of an experimental programme in stone-knapping, after which the resulting lithic products (tools) were analysed. These lithic tools were produced by 15 inexpert knappers (8 right-handed and 7 left-handed), because we were not able to find a statistically significant number of left-handed expert knappers. We considered inexpert knappers to include individuals who had never struck two pebbles together, as well as individuals who were quite familiar with prehistoric tools and had had some degree of practice. The Mann-WhitneyUtest proved that all of them produced flakes with the same technical features, so within this sample expertise was not a factor that affected the presence or absence of the technical features analysed to determine hand laterality. The results of the experiment indicate that no single variable can be used to determine the laterality of the knapper, but rather the evidence of handedness lies in the combination of several variables. Furthermore, not all the flakes display the entire set of significant features. Therefore this study concludes that it is not possible to determine the handedness of a knapper through a single variable present on his or her flakes, but it may be possible to determine laterality by examining a combination of technical variables on a number of his or her pieces. Archaeologically, only well-preserved knapping events with numerous refitting products can be assigned to a left- or a right-handed knapper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Clovis is the best known early development in North America buts its lithic technology is poorly documented and often from animal kill sites. This evidence has been used to picture Clovis peoples as mobile, colonizing, big-game hunters and explanations of lithic technological practices have been framed largely in materialist terms. Increasing documentation suggests views about how the complex Clovis biface and blade production strategies relate to subsistence, land use, and specific kinds of mobility patterns are questionable and often difficult to test with archaeological data. We need to seriously consider the role of Clovis people's worldview in structuring their thought and technical actions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The organization of production and exchange of everyday lithic items is important in defining Classic period lowland Maya economic organization, but the current debate relies on the study of a few lithic workshops, whereas little is known about the consumers' quotidian acquisition of everyday tools. I suggest looking at the problem from the point of view of the household and distinguishing local from nonlocal production by comparing experimental and quantitative data. Examination of the chert collections from households at Rio Bee and Calakmul enabled me to distinguish two different types of chert biface production and distribution during the Late Classic period (A.D. 650-800), namely by means of markets and itinerant craftsmen. Both sites had very different political organizations, but households from both cities acquired lithics through similar networks, showing that this particular aspect of the domestic economy probably had little to do with political power and centralization in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports on the execution of a controlled experiment designed to address the impacts of cattle trampling on surface scatters of chipped stone found in Great Plains contexts. A key focus of the experiment's design is an evaluation of the relationship between trampling duration and substrate compaction on the severity of artifact breakage. Results indicate that post-depositional artifact fragmentation can significantly distort common analytical approaches found within the archaeological literature. Namely, measures of artifact abundance, raw material proportions, and average artifact dimensions are all affected by the impacts of trampling fragmentation. Beyond a consideration of key variables in the process of trampling fragmentation and its effects on analysis, this study outlines analytical means to identify and control for this bias. Tell-tale indicators of trampling damage are described and prescriptive measures designed to mitigate against the effects of trampling are evaluated. Results indicate that if dealt with appropriately, fragmented assemblages should not to be dismissed as distorted beyond usefulness, but instead can be utilized to reveal latent information about past human behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses minimum analytical nodule analysis (MANA) as a tool to evaluate local-scale patterns of lithic technological organization in the Late Paleoindian Cody complex Locality I and Locality V components at the Hell Gap site, wyoming. The spatially proximate and temporally overlapping loci provide an opportunity to assess how these Paleoindians organized lithic technology while using a core area focused land-use strategy. The technological strategies are similar in terms of lithic procurement, tool use, and discard; the main difference is that greater emphasis was placed on tool production in the Locality V assemblage as it functioned secondarily as a workshop. Besides being a campsite, Locality V served, in part, as a hub for tool production at which Cody complex hunter- gatherers prepared tools for forays within and outside the Hartville Uplift core area; Locality I was a campsite within the Hartville Uplift core area. Reflected in this study are glimpses of the separate but interrelated aspects of how a core area land-use strategy operated at the local scale. Results of this study reiterate the point that Plains Paleoindian lifeways were not monolithic, but varied considerably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition, a technocomplex known as the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ), characterized by the presence of leaf-points made from blades, was found across the north-western European plain from Wales to Poland. Given the rarity and paucity of these assemblages, often mixed with other industries in collections from ancient excavations, many scholars have questioned the relevance of the definition of such a technocomplex. Nonetheless, based on technological and typological as well as chronological and geographic considerations, a precise study of available data shows that the LRJ cannot be considered as a facies of another technocomplex (Aurignacian, Szeletian or Bohunician). Identification of the LRJ also allows questions generally related to the ‘transitional industries’ to be tackled, such as their relation to either the last Neanderthals or the first European Homo sapiens sapiens and whether this complex is best explained as an independent development or as the result of acculturation. Given available data, the LRJ appears more likely to have been authored by Neanderthals, and is unlikely to be the result of acculturation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The emergence and evolution of the Folsom point is analyzed in light of cultural transmission and dual inheritance theories. While the Folsom point was an outstanding techno-functional solution to Late Pleistocene bison hunting of the Great Plains of North America, archaeological data indicate that fluting was an unnecessary high-risk activity that served as much a socio-cultural role as a techno- functional one. In dual inheritance terms, the fluting of Folsom points likely gained a foothold as one piece of the "good hunter" model which was passed from elders to youths within specific cultural contexts. The demise of Folsom points during the early Holocene likely was instigated by a transformation of social image, from fluting as an indicator trait of success, to fluting as a measure of increased risk and waste in the face of challenging subsistence realms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of hunter-gatherer activity at lithic raw material sources are relatively rare and largely descriptive, in part because archaeologists have viewed hunter-gatherer lithic procurement as a casual and low-cost activity. This paper presents the results of fieldwork at a hunter-gatherer quartzite quarry along the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado that suggests that this perspective is incorrect. Hunter-gatherer groups at the site quarried stone intensively, although they did not often transport this stone any great distance. This suggests that it is useful to reconsider the way we think about lithic procurement, and particularly that we rethink the concepts of ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ procurement. The data presented here highlight the ability of quarry sites to expand our understanding of how mobile human groups used the landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bradley and Stanford (2004) have raised now, in several instances, the claim that European Upper Paleolithic Solutrean peoples colonized North America, and gave rise to the archaeological complex known as Clovis. They do so in the face of some obvious challenges – notably the several thousand miles of ocean and the 5000 radiocarbon years that separate the two. And yet they argue in their recent paper that the archaeological evidence in support of a historical connection is ‘overwhelming’. We are profoundly skeptical of this claim; we believe that the many differences between Solutrean and Clovis are far more significant than the few similarities, the latter being readily explained by the well-known phenomenon of technological convergence or parallelism. The origin and arrival time of the first Americans remain uncertain, but not so uncertain that we need to look elsewhere other than north-east Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detailed study of lithic assemblages from Mai Agam and other sites at Aksum, Ethiopia, demonstrates cultural continuity from prehistoric times and the adaptation of an earlier Late Stone Age technology to meet the needs of a complex, urban society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]