Matthew T. Boulanger

On thin ice: problems with Stanford and Bradley's proposed Solutrean colonisation of North America

Across Atlantic ice: the origin of Americas 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. Across Atlantic 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.

Cultural Cladistics and the Early Prehistory of North America

Anthropology has always had as one of its goals the explanation of human cultural diversity across space and through time. Over the past few years, there has been a growing appreciation among anthropologists that the approaches biologists have developed to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships of species are useful tools for building and explaining patterns of human diversity. One of these methods is cladistics, which is a means of creating testable propositions of heritable continuity—how one thing is related to another in terms of descent. Cladistics has now been applied to a number of cultural data sets. Here we discuss several of these studies, paying particular attention to a series of related papers in which we have applied cladistics to stone tools in an effort to shed light on the early prehistory of North America. Together, these studies demonstrate that cladistics can be fruitfully applied to a range of questions concerning cultural evolutionary processes and events in prehistory.

Statistical Analysis of Paradigmatic Class Richness Supports Greater Paleoindian Projectile-Point Diversity in the Southeast

Abstract 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.

Trees, thickets, or something in between? Recent theoretical and empirical work in cultural phylogeny

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...

Transmission of Cultural Variants in the North American Paleolithic

North American fluted stone projectile points occur over a relatively short time span, ca. 13,300–11,900 calBP, referred to as the Early Paleoindian period. One long-standing topic in Paleoindian archaeology is whether variation in the points is the result of drift or adaptation to regional environments. Studies have returned apparently conflicting results, but closer inspection shows that the results are not in conflict. At one scale—the overall pattern of flake removal—there appears to have been an early continent-wide mode of point manufacture, but at another scale—projectile-point shape—there appears to have been regional adaptive differences. In terms of learning models, the Early Paleoindian period appears to have been characterized by a mix of indirect-bias learning at the continent-wide level and guided variation at the regional level, the latter a result of continued experimentation with hafting elements and other point characters to match the changing regional environments. Close examination of character-state changes allows a glimpse into how Paleoindian knappers negotiated the design landscape in terms of character-state optimality of their stone weaponry.

ON THE INFERRED AGE AND ORIGIN OF LITHIC BI-POINTS FROM THE EASTERN SEABOARD AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO THE PLEIS - TOCENE PEOPLING OF NORTH AMERICA

Abstract 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.

ASSESSMENT OF THE GRIPABILITY OF TEXTURED CERAMIC SURFACES

Abstract Archaeologists have suggested that various methods of surface texturing, specifically those resulting in alternating ridges and grooves, 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 (smoothed) ceramic tiles were similarly evaluated. Tiles were evaluated under both dry and wet conditions. Coefficients of static friction suggest that, under wet and dry conditions, smoothed surfaces generate less friction than textured surfaces and that not all textured surfaces produce the same amount of friction. Results indicate that vessel-wall 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.

Comparison of fluoride and direct AMS radiocarbon dating of black bear bone from Lawson Cave, Missouri

Abstract 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 increase, provenience information and bone orientation data as well as fine resolution data on K and H become critical to the application of fluoride dating.

Geochemical Characterization of Tecovas and Alibates Source Samples

Abstract Data recovery excavations at three sites near Amarillo, Texas, have yielded lithic assemblages dominated by Alibates and Tecovas materials. The visual distinction between these two southern Plains chert types partially overlaps in color, banding patterns, texture, and translucency. To help resolve this visual identification problem, samples from five spatially distinct Tecovas outcrops, two spatially distinct Alibates outcrops, and one gravel source were submitted for instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) Archaeometry Laboratory. The INAA results geochemically separate Tecovas and Alibates and further differentiate geochemical signatures of multiple Tecovas source areas. These chemical results can now be used to correctly identify and sort chipped stone tools and debitage from archaeological context beyond the two source areas.

GEOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF MICA SOURCE SPECIMENS AND ARTIFACTS FROM THE ABBOTT FARM NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK (28ME1)

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. El Abbott Farm National Historic Landmark es uno de los sitios más significativos del período silvícola del noreste de Estados Unidos. Numerosos rasgos culturales (artefactos de cobre, entierros incinerados, sílex exótico y mica) han sido identificados en el sitio. Numerosas fuentes geológicas potenciales para los artefactos de mica existen en la región del Atlántico Medio. Se exploran dos métodos analíticos para evaluar las fuentes más probables de los artefactos de mica. Muestras procedentes de las fuentes y algunos artefactos fueron analizados usando fluorescencia de rayos X portátil (pXRF) así como análisis por activación neutrónica (AAN). Los datos procedentes del análisis por pXRF son sugestivos pero muestran un alto nivel de incertidumbre analítica. Se hacen varias recomendaciones sobre el uso de esta clase de instrumento en investigaciones futuras para estudiar la mica laminada. Los resultados del AAN son prometedores y sugieren que el estudio geoquímico del abastecimiento de mica tiene mucho potencial. Los resultados de ambos ensayos sugieren que la mayoría de los ejemplares de artefactos recobrados del Abbott Farm tienen una composición química parecida que es muy semejante a la mica del sudeste de Pennsylvania. Un pendiente cortado y taladrado muestra una composición química distinta de la de todos los otros artefactos y muestras de fuentes evaluadas aquí. Aunque nuestros resultados sean preliminares, la aplicación de los modernos métodos analíticos a las colecciones arqueológicas existentes tiene el potencial de proporcionar nueva información significativa.