Michelle R. Bebber

Hunter-gatherer gatherings: stone-tool microwear from the Welling Site (33-Co-2), Ohio, U.S.A. supports Clovis use of outcrop-related base camps during the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas

ABSTRACT 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 of toolstone procurement. Stone outcrops would have been predictable and immovable places on an emerging map of a landscape for a thinly scattered colonizing population needing to find one another, as well as ideal teaching locales where novice flintknappers could learn to make the complex Clovis fluted projectile point without worrying about running out of, or transporting, raw material. For these reasons, several researchers have suggested that stone outcrops were ‘hubs’ of regional Clovis activity where Clovis people not only made tools, but also assembled in large groups at outcrop-related base camps. Once there, they exchanged information and mates, feasted, lived and explored. Here the authors test, using microwear analysis of stone tools, the hypothesis that the Welling site, located within the Upper Mercer chert source area, was an outcrop-related base camp. Their results – suggesting a variety of stone tool functions including dry- and fresh-hide scraping, hide cutting, meat butchering, sawing and scraping bone/antler, sawing and scraping wood, and plant scraping – were consistent with the idea that Welling represents an outcrop-related basecamp in which Clovis foragers assembled, carried out a variety of activities, and regularly travelled to and from the site. These results, when considered in conjunction with recent morphometric analysis of Clovis fluted projectile points, suggest that Welling was indeed a ‘hub’ of Clovis regional activity in Northeast Ohio, and permit us to propose a scenario for how the region was colonized during the terminal Pleistocene.

A performance-based evaluation of chemically similar (carbonate) tempers from Late Prehistoric (AD 1200-1700) Ohio: Implications for human selection and production of ceramic technology

Purpose This study was designed to assess the mechanical properties of two calcium carbonate tempers, limestone and burnt shell. These tempers have been previously compared, in separate studies, to silicate-based grit or sand temper and, relative to the latter, are assumed to possess similar mechanical properties. However, their simultaneous use at the Morrison Village site begs the question: do these two calcium carbonate tempers indeed possess similar mechanical properties? In order to assess their performance characteristics, a side-by-side controlled experimental test was conducted to determine the degree of similarity in providing increased vessel strength and toughness. Methods Standardized ceramic test samples were systematically prepared via a set, explicit protocol. An Instron Series IX universal testing machine configured with a four-point flexural test jig was used to perform a flexural strength test of the test samples. The Instron load and deflection data were used to calculate three values related to mechanical performance: peak load, modulus of rupture, and modulus of elasticity. Results All four comparative tests clearly show substantial differences in peak load, modulus of rupture, and modulus of elasticity. These differences are statistically significant for each performance attribute in every iteration of the experiment and as indicated by Mann-Whitney U Tests. Conclusions These results do not support the hypothesis that limestone and burnt shell offer the same performance characteristics. These results have implications for our understanding of prehistoric human selection of temper and the evolution of ceramic technology. Although both carbonate-based tempers are currently thought to offer the same benefits during the initial phase of pottery production, their contrasting post firing properties would have provided distinct benefits in different contexts. Future assessments of the Morrison Village ceramic assemblage should focus on residue analysis, or other functional indicators, to support or falsify this hypothesis.

Description and Thermoluminescence (Tl) Dating of An Alleged Hopewell Mobiliary Clay Human Figurine from Hopeton Earthworks, Ross County, Ohio

ABSTRACT During a reorganization of the collections at Kent State University (KSU), a fired-clay human figurine was discovered. Beyond the fact that KSU obtained the specimen from a collector, and the alleged origin was the Ohio Hopewell site of Hopeton Earthworks, information on the specimen’s provenience and chain of custody was lacking or ambiguous. To determine whether the artifact was consistent in style and age with Hopewell, we conducted a comparative study, as well as a direct chronometric assessment using thermoluminescence (TL) dating. The comparative study was equivocal: The figurine possessed some attributes consistent with Hopewell, but other features were not consistent or missing. TL dating revealed an age of 4590 ± 270, exceeding the Hopewell period by over 2,000 years. These results suggest two mutually exclusive hypotheses, neither of which is relevant to Hopewell: Either the figurine is one of the earliest examples of ceramic technology in eastern North America or it is a “fake,” perhaps from the Old World, and the object entered the KSU collections under pretense. More broadly, we suggest that archaeologists take a much more circumspect approach to collector-acquired objects and perform their due diligence in verifying the stories associated with them, even if that means increased use of destructive testing procedures.

Toward Recognizing the Prehistoric Butchery of Frozen Meat: An Archaeological Experiment and Stone Tool Microwear Analysis

ABSTRACT Prehistoric humans occupied cold environments for more than one million years without the controlled use of fire. Processing frozen meat may have been a regular occurrence. In order to explore whether this behavior is present in the archaeological record, archaeologists must first understand whether the butchery of frozen meat leaves diagnostic traces of microwear on stone tools. We present an experiment that investigates what sorts of micro-traces are left on replica stone tools used for butchering frozen versus raw meat. Our results indicate that polish of similar brightness and texture forms on specimens used to slice both frozen and unfrozen meat, but that there are differences in the extent of polish formation away from the tool edge, damage frequency, and damage type. These experimental results can be used as a model to recognize frozen and unfrozen meat butchery on artifacts, which in turn has implications for interpreting archaeological sites.

Invention or diffusion: on the appearance of limestone temper in the late Holocene archeological record of southern Ohio, USA

One of the most fundamental questions archeologists face is whether some form or expression of material culture appears at a specific geo-temporal position in the archeological record as a result of invention or diffusion. As one of the most common archeological phenomena, ceramic technology at different times and places was either invented by, or diffused across, prehistoric populations. Here, we investigate whether the use of limestone temper—an additive added to clay before firing—could have been indigenously invented by prehistoric people in southern Ohio, USA. Since current evidence suggests that limestone temper was used on a limited basis during the Middle Woodland period in southern Ohio, it follows that if it were invented there indigenously, then evidence for its invention should be present in that period or the period prior, that is, during later portions of southern Ohio’s Early Woodland period. We tested this hypothesis via an assessment of 32 Early and Middle Woodland pottery sherds from southern Ohio using the HCL method. Our results unequivocally show that small amounts of limestone were indeed present in these early periods, consistent with possibility that the independent invention of limestone temper in southern Ohio could have occurred.

Experimental assessment of proximal-lateral edge grinding on haft damage using replicated Late Pleistocene (Clovis) stone projectile points

Archaeologists recognize countless styles of flaked stone projectile points in the archaeological record, but few are as well recognized as the Clovis fluted projectile point. This specimen has a number of interesting morphological and technological features, but one prominent question of its functional morphology involves the lateral edges of the proximal (basal) portion of the point, where it was attached (hafted) to a handle or shaft. These edges are usually ground (or abraded) dull, presumably to prevent cutting of the lashings binding the point in place. However, while logical, this presumption has never been experimentally tested. Do ground proximal-lateral edges prevent damage to haft lashing at a level significantly greater than that of sharp edges? We tested this question via experimental ballistics using standardized specimens possessing ground or sharp proximal-lateral edges. Our results showed that there was virtually no damage to lashings or presence of point wiggle within the haft, regardless of whether points possessed ground or sharp edges. Moreover, when negligible damage (fraying) did occur, it was restricted to the lashings on the point face, not the lashings on the proximal-lateral edges. While it is plausible, and remains to be tested, that the motions involved in cutting, sawing, and butchery cause more interaction between a point’s lateral edges and lashings, our results suggest that with respect to the actions experienced during projectile impact, ground proximal-lateral edges do not function to protect the haft lashings.