Making Sense of Flake Scatters: Lithic Technological Strategies and Mobility

Abstract

Recent theoretical developments in the organization of lithic technology provide powerful tools for learning about prehistoric settlement systems and the roles of sites within settlement systems. Strong relationships between mobility and the designs and production methods of stone tools provide a means for testing hypotheses about the functional and organizational roles of sites; this is especially important for learning about "plow zone lithic scatters" and other small, poorly preserved sites. Subsistence-settlement models for three periods of western New York prehistory imply different roles for small sites in the interior of the region. These hypotheses are tested by the analysis of dominant tool-production methods. Strong differences in stone tool assemblages indicate major differences in site roles, but greater analytical detail and discriminatory power are obtained from the analysis of tool-production methods from flakes.

Analysis of lithic microdebris from the transitional Aurignacian (Level 18b) at Castillo’s Cave (Puente Viesgo, Cantabria)

“…En concreto, los microdesechos se distinguen de otros artefactos ya que no son objeto frecuente de transporte sino que una vez depositados, a priori, permanecen in situ. Estos restos originados a lo largo de las diferentes fases de la cadena operativa son retenidos en las matrices de los sitios arqueológicos y pueden ser analizados desde aspectos funcionales al tiempo que se pueden detectar posibles efectos generados por agentes naturales (Clark 1986;Cowan 1999;Dunnell y Stein 1989;Fladmark 1982;Hull 1987;Patterson y Sollberger 1978;Peretti 1997;Peretti y Mingo 2000).…”

Estudios tafonómicos del nivel Auriñaciense Arcaico de la cueva de El Castillo (Pueste Visgo, Cantabria) : los microdesechos líticos

“…En consecuencia, el examen de los microdesechos líticos con una dimensión máxima de 1 cm^ puede ser particularmente informativo. Estos desechos que fueron originados durante las etapas de la secuencia de producción lítica son retenidos en las matrices de los sitios arqueológicos y pueden ser analizados desde aspectos funcionales o los producidos por agentes naturales (Clark, 1986;Cowan, 1999;Dunnell y Stein, 1989;Fladmark, 1982;Gallagher, 1977;Hull, 1987;Patterson y Sollberger, 1978;Peretti, 1997).…”

“…-Presencia de corteza: esta característica proporciona información sobre el grado de reducción alcanzada en cada etapa de la manufactura (Aschero, 1975(Aschero, y 1983Cowan, 1999;Nash, 1996).…”

Temporal Scales and Archaeological Landscapes from the Eastern Desert of Australia and Intermontane North America

“…For example, archaeologists discussed the degree to which their evidence indicated forager or collector adaptations (e.g., Sanger, 1996) or the degree to which one could use their evidence to stipul;tte these adaptations (e.g., Cowan, 1999). In other applications, archaeologists relied on the site types (residential camps, field camps, stations, caches, and locations) that Binford had identified as created through different deployments of residential and logistical mobility (see Simms, 1992 for an elaboration of this contention).…”

“…Archaeologists described past hunter-gatherer behavior using the concept of "strategies" similar in form to the analytical evolutionary stable strategies (ESS) of evolutionary ecology. They undertook studies that recognized mobility strategies (e.g., Amick, 1996;Bamforth and Becker, 2000;Smith and McNees, 1999), technological and land use strategies (e.g., Cowan, 1999), reproductive strategies (e.g., Bettinger, 1993), and subsistence strategies (e.g., Dering, 1999;Stafford, et al, 2000).…”