Ashley M. Smallwood

Clovis Technology and Settlement in the American Southeast: Using Biface Analysis to Evaluate Dispersal Models

Abstract Kelly and Todd’s (1988) “high-technology forager” model predicts Clovis groups were highly mobile populations that left behind behaviorally consistent records of Clovis fluted points as evidence of their short-term occupations. Anderson’s (1990, 1996) staging-area model predicts that Clovis settlement was more gradual; groups entered the continent and slowed migration to concentrate territorial ranges around resource-rich river valleys, and these staging areas became the demographic foundations for early cultural regionalization. This study analyzes southeastern Clovis point data and biface assemblages from Carson-Conn-Short; Topper, and Williamson to test the technological implications of these two models. Significant subregional variation exists in Clovis point morphology and biface production techniques. This variation suggests the subregions represent distinct populations who distinctly altered aspects of their technology but maintained fundamental elements of the Clovis tradition. These findings are at odds with the high-technology forager model and more closely fit the staging-area model.

Pleistocene Human Settlement in the Southeastern United States: Current Evidence and Future Directions

Abstract Research into the earliest occupations in the southeastern United States has been underway since the 1930s, when a pattern of large-scale excavations combined with the reporting of surface finds was initiated that continues to this day. Work at Macon Plateau and Parrish Village, excavated during the New Deal, was followed by a series of stratigraphic excavations in floodplains, rockshelters, and other locales from the 1940s onward. These early studies produced a basic cultural sequence, portions of which were defined by cross-dating findings from the Southeast with discoveries made in other parts of the country. The Southeast is unique in that surveys of fluted projectile points have been conducted in every state, some since the 1940s. These surveys now encompass a wider range of projectile points and other tool forms, and the large numbers of Paleoindian artifacts found in the region suggest intensive occupation. Whether these quantities reflect the presence of large numbers of early people, or of modern collectors and extensive agriculture, remains the subject of appreciable debate. The regional radiocarbon record is fairly robust for the latter end of the period, but far more sample collection, analysis, and interpretation is needed. The regional literature is burgeoning, with research being conducted in every state, much of it funded by CRM activity.

Building experimental use-wear analogues for Clovis biface functions

This paper reports an experimental program designed to record microscopic use-wear traces obtained on replica Clovis points and bifaces used in impact, butchering, chopping, and scraping tasks. These experiments established the use-wear type, frequency, and distribution of use-wear traces acquired in bifacial tool tasks. Replica points and bifaces were photo-documented prior to use to monitor the use-wear accrued through multiple episodes and consider if a single tool used in multiple tasks could produce distinct wear patterns that were microscopically distinguishable. Ultimately, the experimental analogues served as the foundation to interpret use-wear traces detected on Clovis bifaces from the Gault site, Texas.

TESTING FOR EVIDENCE OF PALEOINDIAN RESPONSES TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES DURING THE YOUNGER DRYAS CHRONOZONE IN GEORGIA

Abstract For the Southeast, it has been proposed that climate changes during the Younger Dryas period triggered a human population decline and/or substantial reorganization. We use the Georgia point record in the Paleoindian Database of the Americas to test for evidence of changes in landscape use through the Paleoindian period and consider these changes in the context of the Georgia paleoenvironmental record spanning the Younger Dryas. Based on differences in point frequencies, distributions, raw material types, and transport distances and directions, we conclude that significant changes in landscape use occurred during the Paleoindian period, and these correspond to destabilization of the immediate coastal zone due to fluctuations in sea level.

Paleoindian unifacial stone tool 'spurs': intended accessories or incidental accidents?

Paleoindian unifacial stone tools frequently exhibit distinct, sharp projections, known as “spurs”. During the last two decades, a theoretically and empirically informed interpretation–based on individual artifact analysis, use-wear, tool-production techniques, and studies of resharpening–suggested that spurs were sometimes created intentionally via retouch, and other times created incidentally via resharpening or knapping accidents. However, more recently Weedman strongly criticized the inference that Paleoindian spurs were ever intentionally produced or served a functional purpose, and asserted that ethnographic research “demonstrates that the presence of so called ‘graver’ spurs does not have a functional significance.” While ethnographic data cannot serve as a direct test of the archaeological record, we used Weedman’s ethnographic observations to create two quantitative predictions of the Paleoindian archaeological record in order to directly examine the hypothesis that Paleoindian spurs were predominantly accidents occurring incidentally via resharpening and reshaping. The first prediction is that the frequency of spurs should increase as tool reduction proceeds. The second prediction is that the frequency of spurs should increase as tool breakage increases. An examination of 563 unbroken tools and 629 tool fragments from the Clovis archaeological record of the North American Lower Great Lakes region showed that neither prediction was consistent with the notion that spurs were predominately accidents. Instead, our results support the prevailing viewpoint that spurs were sometimes created intentionally via retouch, and other times, created incidentally via resharpening or knapping accidents. Behaviorally, this result is consistent with the notion that unifacial stone tools were multifunctional implements that enhanced the mobile lifestyle of Pleistocene hunter-gatherers.

Exploring late Paleoindian and early Archaic unfluted lanceolate point classification in the Southern Plains

During the late Paleoindian and early Archaic periods, the Southern Plains witnessed a diversification in unfluted lanceolate point styles. The classification of these points into distinct and meaningful typological groups continues to play a fundamental role in building an understanding of cultural changes at the end of the last Ice Age. In this study, we analyze a sample of points from the Hogeye site, Texas to explore unfluted lanceolate point classifications. The results suggest the presence of at least three late Paleoindian/early Archaic point hafting traditions in the Southern Plains, an Angostura/Thrall Tradition, a Dalton/Golondrina Tradition, and a Plainview/St. Marys Hall Tradition.

Context and spatial organization of the Clovis assemblage from the Topper site, South Carolina

Abstract This paper reports results of a 40 sq m block excavation of the Clovis assemblage from the Topper site, South Carolina. Topper is one of only three buried, extensively excavated Clovis quarry-related sites in North America. The Clovis assemblage was recovered in a buried component distinct from overlying Archaic and Woodland components. The site geomorphology and formation processes and the horizontal distribution of the assemblage are used to identify a workshop floor with discrete knapping loci created by unique production and use goals. The excavated assemblage from Topper provides useful and important information in order to reinterpret the Clovis occupation of the Southeast. Moreover, spatial patterning from Topper shows Clovis people organized and structured onsite activities at quarry-related sites.

Mobility and Ancient Society in Asia and the Americas. MICHAEL DAVID FRACHETTI and ROBERT N. SPENGLER, editors. 2015. Springer, Cham, Switzerland. xiii + 202 pp.

establishment of colonies as a tactic undertaken piecemeal by groups to make ends meet in an urbanizing landscape, and (4) the spread of cultural horizons before the emergence of regionally organized states. There is much of value in this book. Jennings largely succeeds in the difficult task of striking a balance between recognizing significant differences among cases while extracting meaningful generalizations. In such a wide-ranging volume there is an understandable reliance on synthetic treatments of different regions, which raises the question of how much his presentation reflects the interpretive biases of his sources. In the case I know best, though, he does a good job of acknowledging and, where possible, reconciling, alternative interpretations of the development of Monte Albán and the Zapotec state. Jennings makes a convincing argument against the lock-step development of the traits ascribed to civilization, even if his claims for the continued damage done by imposing a stair-step model on culture change sometimes seem overdrawn in the face of his repeated acknowledgment that few archaeologists today believe that change was instantaneous or totalizing. He also argues convincingly for the priority of urbanization over state formation in the cases he examines. Consideration of additional cases likely would reveal greater variation than is suggested in his model of cascading processes of urbanization, colonization, expansion of a cultural horizon, and state formation; the nonurban horizon of the Hopewell Interaction Sphere springs to mind. Some readers will find his explanation of cultural horizons overly centrifugal, echoing “mother culture” models for the origins of civilization, despite his insistence that “cultural horizons, like colonies, are the result of widespread interaction networks that tie groups together” (p. 282) and that were not centrally controlled (p. 20). Jennings, furthermore, makes the excellent point that urbanizing centers required the creation of a countryside, but he seems to lump together extractive colonies, diaspora communities, and trading enclaves in arguing that colonies precede state formation. In sum, Jennings has produced a provocative, highly readable study, which I recommend to all interested in urbanization and state formation and as a text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses. It will surely provoke discussion and debate, and will provide a valuable springboard for future research. Civilization is a resilient beast, though. Jennings has struck it a severe blow, but I doubt he has succeeded in killing civilization in the academy, much less in the public imagination. Mobility and Ancient Society in Asia and the Americas. MICHAEL DAVID FRACHETTI and ROBERT N. SPENGLER III, editors. 2015. Springer, Cham, Switzerland. xiii + 202 pp.

179.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-3-319-15137-3.

179.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-3-319-15137-3.

Redating the Late Paleoindian/Early Archaic Golondrina Component at Baker Cave, Texas and Implications for the Dalton/Golondrina Expansion

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 Greers 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.