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The Mielke site (33SH26) is a multicomponent locality in western Ohio, in an upland portion of the state that forms a drainage divide between the Great Lakes and Ohio River watersheds. The site possesses a prominent Clovis component that we describe here and assessed via test excavations, geochemical sourcing, technological descriptions, geometric morphometrics, microwear, and GIS analysis. Five different raw materials, whose outcrops are located 150+ km from the site in several different directions, appear to be present. Although our inferences about the activities that occurred here in Clovis times are constrained by the presence of later components and the collecting history of the site, its location and artifacts are suggestive of what type of Clovis site Mielke may have been and how its Late Pleistocene inhabitants may have moved across North America's midcontinent.

Seeman, Morris, and Summers misrepresent or misunderstand the arguments we have made, as well as their own previous work. Here, we correct these inaccuracies. We also reiterate our support for hypothesis-driven and evidence-based research.

We present obsidian-sourcing data from Pot Creek Pueblo (LA 260), one of the northernmost Puebloan settlements in the Northern Rio Grande, occupied from at least 1260 ce until ca. 1320 ce when much of the pueblo was burned and the site was depopulated. Although the occupation of Pot Creek Pueblo was short, it occurred during a pivotal period in the Northern Rio Grande. The population of the region increased rapidly at this time, possibly due to an influx of migrants from the Mesa Verde/San Juan area to the west, and locally people living in relatively small villages comprised of pithouses and above-ground unit pueblos begin to coalesce into fewer, but much larger above-ground pueblos. Obsidian-source choices throughout the region may provide insight into how the proposed migration impacted existing resource-procurement patterns. Our data demonstrate that despite the diverse histories of the settlement’s inhabitants, the exchange system supplying obsidian to Pot Creek Pueblo remained stable throughout its occupation. We argue that exchange dynamics of the local community remained the primary means of obtaining obsidian despite potential for new avenues that might have been available through the addition of new community members from outside the region and despite population growth and changing settlement patterns in the broader Northern Rio Grande.

The Antelope Springs Folsom locality is located near Trout Creek Pass, which connects South Park, a high elevation basin in the Rocky Mountains, with the headwaters region of the Arkansas River. Th...

In 2011, the University of Toledo, Ohio, transferred five Clovis fluted points to the Department of Archaeology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History for permanent curation. Here, following several similar previous efforts, we describe these five Late Pleistocene artifacts with technological descriptions, illustrations, morphometrics, and microwear. These specimens support long-distance lithic procurement (> 200 km) from central Ohio to NW Ohio, as well as the exploitation of the NW Ohio and southern Michigan landscape by Clovis Paleoindian foragers.

This study examines small-scale household ceramic production at the site of Xaltocan, Mexico, to understand the organization of household ceramic production prior to the development of the Aztec Empire. We examine utilitarian vessels and serving wares from an Early Postclassic (a.d.900–1200) domestic context using neutron activation analysis (NAA). We also examine archaeological evidence for ceramic manufacture. The NAA data reveal that similar raw materials and paste recipes were used for both utilitarian and decorated wares, suggesting that households produced both plain and decorated pottery. We conclude that ceramic production was an intermittent activity that took place alongside other crafts and agriculture. By looking at ceramics within their contexts of use and production, we consider the practices and choices made by individual social units, which is crucial to interpreting broader Early Postclassic economic systems and the ways in which commoners influenced these systems.

Stone was a critical resource for prehistoric hunter-gatherers. Archaeologists, therefore, have long argued that these groups would actively have sought out stone of ‘high quality’. Although the defining of quality can be a complicated endeavour, researchers in recent years have suggested that stone with fewer impurities would be preferred for tool production, as it can be worked and used in a more controllable way. The present study shows that prehistoric hunter-gatherers at the Holocene site of Welling, in Ohio, USA, continuously selected the ‘purest’ stone for over 9000 years.

Five flaked stone artifacts from the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene periods of North America were discovered by a collector in Christian County, Kentucky. These artifacts include a Clovis projectile point, a Cumberland preform, a biface, a prismatic blade core, and a St. Charles projectile point base. All specimens were made from material macroscopically consistent with Ste. Genevieve chert. We present here descriptions, morphometrics, and microwear analyses of this collection. Given that the artifacts discussed here are a rather heterogeneous collection of items, we conclude the report with a discussion of the utility we feel the publication of small artifact sets provides the field of archaeology.

Based on flaked stone projectile point manufacture and proximity to stone outcrops, archaeologists designated the Honey Run site (33-Co-3), Coshocton County, Ohio, to be a Late Paleoindian workshop. Specifically, the Honey Run site yielded stemmed lanceolate points reminiscent of Late Paleoindian types found in Western North America. Here, we test the validity of the assertion that Honey Run is Late Paleoindian in age. Given the absence of samples for radiocarbon or luminescence dating, we do this by comparing a series of morphometric attributes recorded from the Honey Run point specimens to those recorded from the Burrell Orchard site, another Ohio site possessing stemmed lanceolate points, but that is well dated to the Late Archaic period. Our analyses demonstrate that the Honey Run point sample is not morphometrically different from the Burrell Orchard point sample. While we do not know the absolute age of the Honey Run points, and thus whether the point similarity between Honey Run and Burrell Orchard represents a case of technological convergence between a Late Paleoindian and Late Archaic site, or whether the similarity represents a contemporaneous cultural horizon between two Late Archaic sites, what our results do convey, however, is that automatically assuming Honey Run is Late Paleoindian based entirely on projectile point typology is precarious.

During the Pleistocene Peopling of North America, the use of stone outcrops for forager gatherings would have provided Clovis colonizing hunter-gatherers with several advantages beyond that...

This study presents preliminary results of petrographic and X-ray fluorescence analyses of cut stone blocks used for urban construction at Teotihuacan, the capital of a regional state in Central Mexico (ca. AD 150–650). Cut stone blocks were concentrated in the civic-ceremonial core of the city and were probably prestigious architectural elements due to their higher costs of procurement and transportation compared to alternative materials (boulders and clay amalgam). This suggests that the organization of stone block procurement and distribution was likely embedded in power relations between commissioners and mining groups. By combining multiple analytical methods that complement one another, this study was able to discriminate local (within 10–15 km radius) from non-local materials. The results suggest that the majority (> 80%) of andesitic cut stone blocks were brought from non-local sources. This paper discusses procurement organization and suggests that most rocks were quarried by specialized groups and brought to the city through a tribute system and/or patron-client relations. This has implications for understanding the nature of the urban-hinterland relationship and expansion of the Teotihuacan state.

The transition from the atlatl to the bow and arrow happened numerous times in prehistory, and it often accompanied changes in socio-political complexity and labor organization. Recent work relying on longitudinal scores from recreational archery and atlatl competitions suggests that changes in socio-political complexity and labor organization arose due to between-technology differences in learning rates: bows take more time to master, and thus their benefits are not as easily obtained as those of atlatls. We discuss comparability issues with these recreational data sets. Additionally, we show that the learning curves underpinning this hypothesis do not account for inter-competitor variability in learning rates and that sources of uncertainty were omitted from the analysis. We use multilevel models to carry out an analysis of the score data that circumvents these problems. The multilevel models indicate that at best, the modern recreational data are consistent with similarly modest score gains for both technologies. These modest gains are probably unrelated to learning

A small Clovis stone tool assemblage was discovered in Salt Fork State Park, Guernsey County, Southeastern Ohio. Included in the assemblage was a complete Clovis fluted projectile point, eight other formal tools, and 118 specimens of lithic debitage. These specimens were made from Upper Mercer chert, the principle location of which is found 42 linear km (63 km, least cost path) west of the site. We present here descriptions, morphometrics, and microwear analyses of the assemblage. While future excavations will shed further light on the site and its role in Clovis colonization and behavior, the results currently are consistent with the hypothesis that the site represents a small residential camp site. Further, the site adds further evidence to the hypothesis that Clovis Paleoindians did indeed reside in Southeastern Ohio's unglaciated Appalachian Plateau region, despite claims to the contrary.

Five Clovis lithic artifacts were found in a plowed farm field just north of an unnamed tributary of the Mahoning River, Columbiana County, Northeast Ohio, approximately 700 m northeast of the Hartley Mastodon discovery. These artifacts include the base of a Clovis fluted projectile point, a preform base with a prepared fluting “nipple”, a large flake, a biface tip, and a biface mid-section. We present here basic artifact morphometrics; observations involving stone tool raw material, production, and discard; microwear analysis; and stone-source-to-site straight-line and least-cost distances. Overall, our results are relevant to two discussion points. First, there is currently no strong evidence linking the five Clovis stone tools to the Hartley Mastodon. Second, the area in which the five artifacts were found would have been attractive to Clovis Paleoindians for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that the immediate area is a glacially-deposited secondary chert source.

The Abbott Farm National Historic Landmark is one of the more significant Woodland-period sites in the Northeast. Numerous Hopewellian cultural traits (copper artifacts, cremated burials, exotic cherts, and mica) have been identified at the site. Numerous potential geological sources for the mica artifacts exist in the Mid-Atlantic region. We explore two analytical methods to evaluate the most likely geological sources of the mica artifacts. Source and artifact specimens were analyzed using pXRF as well as neutron activation. Our pXRF data are suggestive, but show high analytical uncertainty. We make several recommendations relevant to future attempts that would use this kind of instrument to study sheet mica. Our neutron activation results are promising and suggest that geochemical sourcing of mica has much potential. Results of both assays suggest that most of the artifact specimens recovered from Abbott Farm share a similar chemistry, and this composition is very similar to mica from southeastern Pennsylvania. A cut-and-drilled pendant exhibits a chemical makeup distinctly different from all other artifacts and source specimens evaluated here. Although our results are preliminary, the application of modern analytical methods to extant archaeological collections has the potential to provide significant new information.

The Nelson stone tool cache was discovered in 2008 in Mount Vernon, Ohio. The cache does not include any diagnostic materials, and independent age control is unavailable. Although aspects of its 164 bifaces are suggestive of a Clovis affiliation – including the occasional occurrence of unmistakable flute scars – nearly all are in the early- to mid-stages of production, there are no definitive finished Clovis fluted points that would make it possible to assign the cache to that time period. To ascertain its cultural affiliation, we undertook a detailed qualitative and quantitative comparison of the Nelson cache bifaces with ones known to be both Clovis and post-Clovis in age. We also conducted geochemical sourcing, ochre analyses, and microwear analysis to understand the context of the cache, regardless of its age and cultural affinity. By some key measures it is consistent with Clovis caches in this region and elsewhere, but the case remains unproven. Nonetheless, if the Nelson cache is from the Clovis period, it is significant that most of its bifaces appear to be made on large flakes, in keeping with Clovis technology in the Lower Great Lakes, and an economically conservative, risk-mitigating strategy that conforms to predictions of human foragers colonizing the area in late Pleistocene times.

Several flaked-stone crescents from the northern Great Basin were recently identified within the James M. Collins artifact collection held in the Archaeological Research Collections, Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University. These artifacts are morphologically and technologically consistent with other pre-Columbian crescents reported from the region. The two obsidian crescents in the collection exhibit compositions that are consistent with obsidian from the Whitehorse/Double H source, located immediately south of where the artifacts were reportedly obtained. Analysis of the crescents for use wear suggests that they were used in a manner consistent with transversely hafted projectiles. Data reported here add to a growing body of information relating to the morphology, use, and preferred raw materials of flaked-stone crescents in the region.

A Clovis fluted projectile point preform was discovered in 2006 from a freshly plowed farm field northwest of Wauseon in Fulton County, Ohio. We present here observations of the specimen's flake-scar patterning and production, geometric morphometrics, microwear, as well as visual raw material identifications and straight-line and least-cost stone source distances. Overall, our examination is consistent with two hypotheses. First, central Ohio toolstones served as an important Clovis raw material for the northwesterly tri-state area of Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, more than 230 km away. Second, Clovis colonizers of the Lower Great Lakes geared up and prepared well enough that they could afford to discard an unbroken, sizable specimen such as the Wauseon Clovis preform. We conclude with a possible explanation for why the preform was discarded.

Neutron activation analysis was conducted on Late Bronze IIA pottery from Tarsus-Gozlukule and compared with archival data from contemporary sites in Cilicia and Cyprus. The results provide a model for the organization of pottery production at Tarsus-Gozlukule when the settlement was under the rule of the Hittite Empire. It is proposed that multiple contemporary pottery workshops provided the community of Tarsus-Gozlukule with both Hittite-style pottery and other wares. It is further suggested that these workshops may have differed in the extent to which they were attached to the imperial administration.

Study of northwest Alaskan ceramic production and distribution patterns has the potential to provide new evidence of coastal hunter-gatherer mobility and social interaction in the late pre-contact period. This research is directed at characterizing potential clay sources and linking ceramic groups to raw-material source areas through instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and modeling of possible clay and temper combinations. Results of INAA of 458 ceramic, 31 clay, and 28 possible temper specimens reinforces prior identification (Anderson et al., 2011) of three broad compositional groups. Though raw materials were collected over a large area, the clay specimens demonstrate remarkable geochemical homogeneity and fall within one of the established ceramic geochemical groups, Macrogroup 2. This suggests that potters may have added little to no mineral temper to the clays and also that what we have termed Macrogroup 2 ceramics were produced in the north and central areas of northwest Alaska. Group 1 and 3 ceramics may be evidence of pottery being brought into the region from elsewhere. Results indicate that ceramics circulated widely around the region and suggest the possibility of areas of greater production perhaps due to an abundance of clay or wood fuels needed for firing. This work lays the foundation for further exploring the cultural processes that underlie these distributions and provides insight into the complexities of hunter-gatherer ceramic production and distribution.

In 2014, the television show America Unearthed (A & E Networks) featured an episode discussing evidence for pre-Columbian contact between Polynesia and continental North and South America. Included in this “evidence” was a large spearpoint, allegedly found on the island of Maui. The show’s host argues that the spearpoint is made on obsidian from central Mexico, and therefore represents evidence for direct contact between Polynesian and Maya peoples prior to the sixteenth century CE. A detailed analysis of the spearpoint, including geochemical sourcing, reveals that it is indeed made of so-called Pachuca obsidian from central Mexico; however, the size, shape, and lithic technology of the piece are consistent with easily obtainable modern creations. Two alternative hypotheses that account for all available evidence are offered to explain how this spearpoint may have traveled from Mexico City to Maui. In the absence of any other evidence supporting a pre- Columbian origin for this piece, it cannot be considered evidence of a Polynesian connection with continental North America.

Ronald Mason’s hypothesis from the 1960s that the southeastern United States possesses greater Paleoindian projectile-point diversity than other regions is regularly cited, and often assumed to be true, but in fact has never been quantitatively tested. Even if valid, however, the evolutionary meaning of this diversity is contested. Point diversity is often linked to Clovis “origins,” but point diversity could also arise from group fissioning and drift, admixture, adaptation, or multiple founding events, among other possibilities. Before archaeologists can even begin to discuss these scenarios, it is paramount to ensure that what we think we know is representative of reality. To this end, we tested Mason’s hypothesis for the first time, using a sample of 1,056 Paleoindian points from eastern North America arui employing paradigmatic classification and rigorous statistical tools used in the quantification of ecological biodiversity. Our first set of analyses, which compared the Southeast to the Northeast, showed that the Southeast did indeed possess significantly greater point-class richness. Although this result was consistent with Mason’s hypothesis, our second set of analyses, which compared the Upper Southeast to the Lower Southeast and the Northeast showed that in terms of point-class richness the Upper Southeast > Lower Southeast > Northeast. Given current chronometrie evidence, we suggest that this latter result is consistent with the suggestion that the area of the Ohio, Cumberland, and Tennessee River valleys, as well as the mid-Atlantic coastal plain, were possible initial and secondary “staging areas” for colonizing Paleoindian foragers moving from western to eastern North America.

Resharpening is considered to be a common technique for extending the use life of stone tools in certain prehistoric contexts. For Clovis peoples, the earliest well-documented North Americans, resharpening is believed to have been particularly important because foraging territories were unknown or poorly known. Gardner (1983, Archaeol East N Amer 11, 49–64) proposed a spatial model of Clovis point resharpening wherein the effects of resharpening increase with distance from stone outcrop. Here we report a study that quantitatively assesses Gardner's model using a large sample of Clovis points from three high-quality chert sources in the Midwest. To investigate the predictions of the model, we used least-cost pathway distances from outcrop locations to each Clovis point and three measures of point resharpening. Our expectations, derived from the model, are that as distance from outcrop increases, points should show evidence of increased resharpening and therefore be smaller in size; should deviate from the classic shape; and should exhibit greater outer-to-inner flake-scar ratios. Our results indicate that there is no spatial patterning of these three measures of point resharpening and therefore do not support Gardner's model. Further analyses suggest that resharpening was not a significant source of Clovis-point variation at the population level and that Clovis points in the Midwest may not have served as the long-life tools as has been generally assumed.

Tool design is a cultural trait—a term long used in anthropology as a unit of transmittable information that encodes particular behavioral characteristics of individuals or groups. After they are transmitted, cultural traits serve as units of replication in that they can be modified as part of a cultural repertoire through processes such as recombination, loss, or partial alteration. Artifacts and other components of the archaeological record serve as proxies for studying the transmission (and modification) of cultural traits, provided there is analytical clarity in defining and measuring whatever it is that is being transmitted. Our interest here is in tool design, and we illustrate how to create analytical units that allow us to map tool-design space and to begin to understand how that space was used at different points in time. We first introduce the concept of fitness landscape and impose a model of cultural learning over it, then turn to four methods that are useful for the analysis of design space: paradigmatic classification, phylogenetic analysis, distance graphs, and geometric morphometrics. Each method builds on the others in logical fashion, which allows creation of testable hypotheses concerning cultural transmission and the evolutionary processes that shape it, including invention (mutation), selection, and drift. For examples, we turn to several case studies that focus on Early Paleoindian–period projectile points from eastern North America, the earliest widespread and currently recognizable remains of hunter–gatherers in late Pleistocene North America.

Proponents of a Solutrean colonization of the New World, and a pre-LGM occupation of North America's Mid-Atlantic region, cite as evidence a bifacially flaked, bi-pointed stone blade allegedly dredged from the continental shelf by the crew of the vessel Cinmar , along with portions of a mastodon skeleton later directly dated to 22,760 ± 90 RCYBP. However, our investigations into the discovery found several significant inconsistencies with respect to what is currently reported in the literature and raise serious questions that must be addressed before the Cinmar artifact can be considered evidence of anything pertinent to archaeology. In this article we present evidence and questions regarding the history of the Cinmar discovery, the location of the Cinmar discovery site, and the nature of the Cinmar vessel itself.

The archaeologically sudden appearance of Clovis artifacts (13,500–12,500 calibrated years ago) across Pleistocene North America documents one of the broadest and most rapid expansions of any culture known from prehistory. One long-asserted hallmark of the Clovis culture and its rapid expansion is the long-distance acquisition of “exotic” stone used for tool manufacture, given that this behavior would be consistent with geographically widespread social contact and territorial permeability among mobile hunter–gatherer populations. Here we present geochemical evidence acquired from neutron activation analysis (NAA) of stone flaking debris from the Paleo Crossing site, a 12,900-year-old Clovis camp in northeastern Ohio. These data indicate that the majority stone raw material at Paleo Crossing originates from the Wyandotte chert source area in Harrison County, Indiana, a straight-line distance of 450–510 km. Our analyses thus geochemically confirm an extreme stone-source-to-camp-site distance of a Clovis site in eastern North America and thus provide strong inferential material evidence that the fast expansion of the Clovis culture across the continent occurred as a result of a geographically widespread hunter–gatherer social network.

Recently, advocates of an “older -than- Clovis” occupation of eastern North America have suggested that bi-pointed leaf-shaped lanceolate stone bifaces provide definitive evidence of human culture on the eastern seaboard prior to the Late Glacial Maximum. This argument hinges on two suppositions : first, that points of this form are exceedingly rare in the East and second, that all known occurrences of these point forms are from landforms or depositionaI environments dating to some time before the late Pleistocene. Neither of these suppositions is supported by the archaeological record. Bi-pointed leaf shaped blades have been recoveredfrom throughout the Middle Atlantic and Northeast, where they have been repeatedly dated, either radiometrically or by association with diagnostic artifacts, to between the Late Archaic and the Early Woodland. Statistical analysis of supposed “older-than-Clovis” leaf-shaped blades demonstrates that there are no significant differences in morphology between them and unequivocally Middle Holocene leaf-shaped blades. Until such time as evidence demonstrates otherwise, there is no reason to accept that these leaf-shaped bifaces are diagnostic of a Pleistocene, much less pre-Late Glacial Maximum, occupation in eastern North America.

We present results of petrographic analysis of a sample of pottery from Fort Hill, a fortified village in southwestern New Hampshire built and occupied by a group of Native Americans between Autumn of 1663 and Spring of 1664. Our analyses reveal a surprising degree of variability in ceramic fabrics and in ceramic production techniques relative to that reported for contemporaneous and slightly earlier assemblages from southern and central New England. We explain the presence of this variability as likely reflecting the amalgamation of multiple ceramic traditions that would result from the presence of refugees within the community occupying Fort Hill.

North American fluted projectile points are the quintessential temporally diagnostic artifacts, occurring over a relatively short time span, from ca. 13,300 calBP to ca. 11,900 calBP, commonly referred to as the Early Paleoindian period. Painting with a broad brush, points from the Plains and Southwest exhibit less diversity in shape than what is found in the East, especially for the later half of the Early Paleoindian period. It remains unclear how various fluted-point forms relate to each other and whether the continent-wide occurrence of the earliest fluted-point forms represents a single cultural expression, albeit with regional differences. We used phylogenetic analysis to evaluate fluted-point classes from the eastern United States. Preliminary results suggest that there is both temporal and spatial patterning of some classes and that much of the variation in form has to do with modifications to hafting elements. Although our analyses are presently at a coarse scale, it appears that different kinds of learning could contribute in part to regional differences in point shape.

Across Atlantic ice: the origin of America's Clovis culture(Stanford & Bradley 2012) is the latest iteration of a controversial proposal that North America was first colonised by people from Europe rather than from East Asia, as most researchers accept. The authors, Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley, argue that Solutrean groups from southern France and the Iberian Peninsula used watercraft to make their way across the North Atlantic and into North America during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). According to Stanford and Bradley, this 6000km journey was facilitated by a continuous ice shelf that provided fresh water and a food supply.AcrossAtlantic ice has received a number of positive reviews. Shea (2012: 294), for example, suggests that it is “an excellent example of hypothesis-building in the best tradition of processual archaeology. It challenges American archaeology in a way that will require serious research by its opponents”. Runnels (2012) is equally enthusiastic.

It has long been argued that specialized big-game-hunting Paleoindians were responsible for the extinction of three dozen large-bodied mammalian genera in North America. In northeastern North America, the overkill hypothesis cannot be tested on the basis of associations of Paleoindian artifacts and remains of extinct mammals because no unequivocal associations are known. The overkill hypothesis requires Paleoindians to be contemporaneous with extinct mammalian taxa and this provides a means to evaluate the hypothesis, but contemporaneity does not confirm overkill. Blitzkrieg may produce evidence of contemporaneity but it may not, rendering it difficult to test. Overkill and Blitzkrieg both require large megafaunal populations. Chronological data, Sporormiella abundance, genetics, and paleoclimatic data suggest megafauna populations declined prior to human colonization and people were only briefly contemporaneous with megafauna. Local Paleoindians may have only delivered the coup de grace to small scattered and isolated populations of megafauna.

Anthropology has always had as one of its goals the explanation of human cultural diversity across space and through time. Over the past several decades, there has been a growing appreciation among anthropologists and other social scientists that the phylogenetic approaches that biologists have developed to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships of species are useful tools for building and explaining patterns of human diversity. Phylogenetic methods offer a means of creating testable propositions of heritable continuity – how one thing is related to another in terms of descent. Such methods have now been applied to a wide range of cultural phenomena, including languages, projectile points, textiles, marital customs, and political organization. Here we discuss several cultural phylogenies and demonstrate how they were used to address long-standing anthropological issues. Even keeping in mind that phylogenetic trees are nothing more than hypotheses about evolutionary relationships, some researchers have argued that when it comes to cultural behaviors and their products, tree building is theoretically unwarranted. We examine the issues that critics raise and find that they in no way sound the death knell for cultural phylogenetic work.

After a 20-year hiatus (1955–1975) during which few archaeologists discussed fluoride dating, the method again received attention in the 1980s and 1990s when some argued for its validity. As a dating method, fluoride dating depends on the rate at which fluorine ions replace hydroxyl ions in osseous tissue. The rate of replacement is influenced by the properties of the skeletal part (SP), sediment chemistry (K), and sediment hydrology (H), and the replacement rate influences estimates of time. Calibrated AMS radiocarbon assays of 10 black bear (Ursus americanus) femora from a natural-trap cave in central Missouri are weakly correlated with fluorine concentrations, determined by neutron activation analysis in the 10 femora. Despite minimal variation in SP, K, and H, results indicate fluoride dating can be considered a valid dating method only in cases when the chronological validity of its results are confirmed with independent chronometric data. As similarities in fluorine amounts across specimens ...

Contamination of ceramic specimens resulting from sample-preparation techniques has the ability to confound efforts of chemical characterization. Primary contamination, identified by significant concentrations of one or more elements, is easily identified. Secondary contamination, resulting from undetected elements influencing detected elements, is more difficult to identify. Evaluation of six powder-extraction techniques identifies variable effects of contamination. Extraction by drilling carries the highest risk of contamination. The grinding of specimens with silicon-carbide wheels may artificially deplete abundances by introducing Si and C. Grinding specimens in an agate mortar and pestle is found to be the technique least likely to result in contamination effects.

Archaeologists have known that an obsidian source exists in the Dasht-i-Nawur basin of central Afghanistan since at least the 1970s; however, regional political turmoil and instability have prevented in-depth study of this source. Data presented here from recent analyses of archival specimens of obsidian collected during a 1976 survey provide a preliminary geochemical profile for this obsidian source. These data suggest that the Dasht-i-Nawur source is easily distinguishable from other obsidian sources in the Near East and southwest Asia. Comparison of these data to an existing database of artifact compositional profiles suggests that initial hypotheses about restricted distribution of the Dasht obsidian may be correct. These data provide for the first time the characterization of a long-known but poorly studied obsidian source. Additionally, this study serves as one example of the benefits gained through working to maintain and preserve data archives of now-closed laboratories.

Archaeologists]have]suggested]that]various]methods]of]surface]texturingo]specifically]those]resulting]in]alternating]ridges and]grooveso]affect]the]gripability]of]a]ceramic]vessel.]Various]methods]of]vessel]texturing]were]applied]to]ceramic]test]tiles and]evaluated]using]a]tribometer]outfitted]with]a]malleable]skinlike]substrate.]Nontextured]smoothedl]ceramic]tiles]were similarly]evaluated.]Tiles]were]evaluated]under]both]dry]and]wet]conditions.]Coefficients]of]static]friction]suggest]thato under]wet]and]dry]conditionso]smoothed]surfaces]generate]less]friction]than]textured]surfaces]and]that]not]all]textured]sur faces]produce]the]same]amount]of]friction.]Results]indicate]that]vesselwall]texturing]may]be]an]adaptation]for]increased vessel]longevity.]Explanations]of]the]development]and]use]of]textured]pottery]must]now]consider]gripability]along]with]a variety]of]factors]related]to]vessel]performance. Los]arqueologos]han]sugerido]que]varios]metodos]de]texturizar]una]superficieo]especificamente]los]que]implican]estriaso]afectan la]habilidad]de]asir]una]vasija]ceramica.]Se]sometieron]a]prueba]piezas]de]ceramica]con]varios]metodos]de]estriar.]Esas]fueron evaluadas]empleando]un]tribometro]equipado]de]un]sustrato]de]superficie]ductil.]Igualmente]se]evaluaron]losas]sin]textura lisasl.]Estas]se]evaluaron]bajo]condiciones]tanto]humedas]como]secas.]Los]coeficientes]de]friccion]estatica]sugieren]queo]bajo condiciones]humedas]y]secaso]las]superficies]alisadas]generan]menos]friccion]de]la]que]generan]las]estriadaso]y]que]todas]las superficies]estriadas]no]producen]la]misma]cantidad]de]friccion.]Los]resultados]indican]que]la]estria]de]la]vasija]puede]ser una]adaptacion]para]aumentar]su]duracion.]Las]explicaciones]del]desarrollo]y]del]uso]de]vasijas]texturizadas]deben]ahora considerar]la]habilidad]de]agarre]como]una]variedad]de]factores]relacionados]a]la]ejecucion]de]la]vasija]misma.

This research examines the evidence for prehistoric ceramic exchange networks over the last 2000 years in northwest Alaska through the use of neutron activation analysis of ceramic artifacts. Results from ceramic analysis on eight coastal and inland archaeological sites identified three source macrogroups and three associated subgroups. Clay source diversity and shared source macrogroups between geographically distant sites suggest the use of multiple sources and/or the movement of pots between production locales, mirroring related patterns in pottery stylistic data. Although additional analytical work is needed to fully understand the changing character of clay procurement and ceramic distribution across this time period, this study provides exploratory data on past ceramic production and distribution that hints at changes in exchange and territoriality in northwest Alaska during the late Holocene.

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) was used to characterize the chemical composition of chert from a primary source in western North Dakota. Known as Sentinel Butte, this source is part of the Eocene-age White River Group (WRG), a widespread geological formation on the central and northern Plains. INAA results demonstrate that it is chemically distinct from other known chert-bearing WRG. Further, analysis of three bifaces from the nearby Beach Clovis cache site demonstrates that they are made of chert from Sentinel Butte, and most likely the other 55 White River Group Silicate (WRGS) bifaces in the cache are as well. Although Clovis caches typically are dominated by materials transported hundreds of kilometers, it is argued that the advance manufacture and caching of bifaces even a short distance from a source may be a highly effective tactic to reduce gearing up time and hence search costs associated with the pursuit of mobile game at the close of the Pleistocene.

The comments of Stanford and Bradley (above) do not address our criticisms and obfuscate the topic at hand with irrelevant data (e.g. the south-to-north movement of fluted points through the Ice Free Corridor), nonexistent data (e.g. ‘under the water’ or ‘destroyed sites’), and questionable data (e.g. Meadowcroft and Cactus Hill are by no means widely accepted, nor are Stanford and Bradley's ‘eight LGM sites’ in the mid-Atlantic region). Before touching on some of these points, we direct the reader to several recent articles (e.g. Morrow 2014; Raff & Bolnick 2014) that provide new evidence or arguments inconsistent with a trans-Atlantic migration, including the fact that DNA from the Clovis Anzick child (Montana) shows no European ancestry (Rasmussenet al. 2014). Although Stanford and Bradley describe their Solutrean ‘solution’ (Stanford & Bradley 1999) to the Pleistocene colonisation of North America as ‘testable’, their position is that the idea is correct until falsified. They propose that their colleagues have yet to provide sufficient ‘critiques’ or ‘challenges’ to discount it (see also Collins 2012; Collinset al. 2013). Yet they are the ones proposing a hypothesis inconsistent with overwhelming multidisciplinary evidence, and they ignore results of tests that do not support their claims.

Results of instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) of Middle and Late Woodland pottery (n = 313) and clay (n = 22) samples from northeastern Florida and southeastern Georgia are presented. Assemblages in this region include Swift Creek Complicated Stamped pottery that preserves unique evidence of social interactions through the inimitable qualities of designs stamped into vessel surfaces. Archaeologists have proffered various hypotheses to explain movement of ceramic vessels or the carved wooden paddles used in the manufacture of these vessels. This study tests these hypotheses and indicates that nonlocal vessels, particularly complicated stamped ones, were deposited almost exclusively in mortuary contexts, a pattern that requires new explanations for the role of pottery in social interactions. These data are being integrated with a larger project that aims to reveal the social processes that were tied to the manufacture, use, and distribution of pottery.

One hundred nineteen late Middle Woodland (ca. A.D. 200–900) sherds and 10 clay samples from the Lower/Middle Delaware Valley were analyzed by Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis. Principal components analysis resulted in the preliminary identification of 8 compositional groups. Two of these groups ( n = 42) and Piedmont-derived clay samples ( n = 4) are noteworthy because they exhibit markedly higher sodium concentrations in relation to the full dataset. Given this observed difference in sodium content, we conclude that the Piedmont is the likely source/production area for this subset of sherds. The relatively high sodium content present in the clays from the Piedmont reinforces the conclusion that the reported sodium values are the result of geologic origin and not diagenetic processes. These results are also used to evaluate an existing late Middle Woodland settlement model for the Lower/Middle Delaware Valley (Stewart, 1990, 1998a, 1998b). However, until further testing is conducted, these interpretations must be viewed as tentative.

Approaches to ceramic analysis in northern New England have historically followed a normative approach to describing form and decoration. Further, these analyses have, with few exceptions, been limited to addressing questions of culture history and chronology. Recent analysis of pottery from the Woodland and Contact periods as well as natural clay deposits from Vermont and New Hampshire serves as a case study in how regional archaeologists may move beyond simplistic questions of “Who?” and “When?” and begin to pursue the “How?” and “Why?” To that end, these data are discussed in terms of technological choices and transmission of cultural knowledge across generations.