Richard W. Yerkes

Recent developments in the analysis of lithic artifacts

A review of recent research on lithic technology and functional analysis is presented. Our perception of the state of the art is based on a review of the literature published during the past three years and on the topics that were covered at conferences and workshops on lithic analysis. While the goals have essentially remained the same since the turn of the century, concerns with chronology and the classification of lithic artifacts have given way to studies that treat stone implements as products of a dynamic system of human behavior. In order to understand stone artifacts and the people that made and used them, archaeologists must understand theprocesses involved in the acquisition, production, exchange, and consumption of lithic artifacts. In the past ten years, experimental studies involving the manufacturing and use of stone tools have been integrated with studies of refitted or conjoined lithic artifacts and microwear analysis. The result is a much more dynamic view of the variability in assemblages of lithic artifacts. In this review, we focus on replication and technological analysis of chipped stone artifacts and microwear analysis, and consider the implications of this research.

Bone chemistry, body parts, and growth marks : Evaluating ohio hopewell and cahokia mississippian seasonality, subsistence, ritual, and feasting

Human stable isotope values and deer utility indices have been used to reconstruct Hopewell and Mississippian diets and subsistence practices, but seasonality studies are also needed to resolve debates about feasting and elite provisioning. Dispersed Hopewell tribes foraged for food and harvested native cultigens. Seasonal feasts at earthworks helped integrate the dispersed populations. Mississippian subsistence cycles are reflected in the seasonal abundance of deposited floral and faunal remains. Pits filled in spring/summer have many fish, but few deer bones. Deer remains are abundant, but fish are rare, in pits filled during the fall/winter. Finding few deer remains in some pits at Cahokia may not mean that deer were scarce but may mean that few deer were hunted during the seasons when those trash pits were filled. Stable isotope values in human burials, analyses of floral and faunal remains from pits and middens filled throughout the year, and diachronic studies of deer size and herd stability indicate that the Cahokia elite consumed a variety of foods including substantial amounts of fish and venison. Patterns in deer element distributions in “elite“” and “non-elite” contexts suggest that venison may have been part of the tribute that was presented to high-status Cahokians.

Early Copper Age Settlements in the Körös Region of the Great Hungarian Plain

Abstract This article discusses research carried out by the Körös Regional Archaeological Project from 2000 to 2006 at Early Copper Age Tiszapolgár Culture sites on the Great Hungarian Plain. To build a model of social organization for the period, we incorporated information from regional geomorphological studies, soil chemistry analysis, archaeological surface surveys, remote sensing, and systematic excavations at Early Copper Age sites in the Körös Valley of southeastern Hungary. Previous models characterized the transition from the Neolithic period to the Copper Age as an abrupt shift from a tell-based, sedentary, agricultural lifeway to one based on mobile cattle herding. By studying the transition between these periods on multiple geographic and temporal scales, we have identified a more gradual process with widespread regional variation in cultural patterns. Similar social processes characterize the transition between chronological periods and cultural phases in other parts of the world, and we suggest that a multiscalar approach is effective for building comparative archaeological models of long-term social change.

Microwear analysis of early Neolithic (PPNA) axes and bifacial tools from Netiv Hagdud in the Jordan Valley, Israel

Abstract A sample of 76 bifacial lithic artifacts from the Sultanian assemblage at the Netiv Hagdud site (9900–9600 BP; American School of Prehistoric Research Bulletin 43, 1997) was examined for microwear and technological traces in order to determine the function of ground and flaked bifacial tools used during the PPNA period. Standardized axe types (flint tranchet axes and polished stone axes made of coarser-grained materials) are among the technological, typological, and functional innovations of the Sultanian culture. The ground stone celts do not seem to have been used as tools, but 78% of the flaked bifacial tools and 27% of the tranchet axe spalls in the microwear sample were used. Most (85%) of the utilized bifacial tools in the sample were used to work wood, and 91% of the utilized axe spalls had woodworking traces. In this article, methods of distinguishing woodworking tools from chipped stone hoes and scrapers are presented, and the significance of the evidence for light woodworking or carpentry at Netiv Hagdud and early Neolithic sites in the Levant is discussed.

The Transition from the Neolithic to the Copper Age: Excavations at Veszto-Bikeri, Hungary, 2000-2002

Abstract The transition from the Neolithic to the Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain (ca. 4500 B.C.) coincides with dramatic changes in house form, settlement layout, settlement distribution, and mortuary customs. These changes affected nearly every aspect of social organization—from the organization of households and villages to the distribution of cultural groups across the landscape. Our current understanding of the various changes that occurred during this important transition is hindered by a lack of systematically excavated settlement sites dating to the Early Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain. The results of three years of excavation at an Early Copper Age settlement located in the Körös River Valley suggest that, in contrast to the Neolithic, craft activities on Early Copper Age sites are segregated in different parts of the settlements. This general pattern of increasing economic specialization occurs throughout SE Europe at the end of the Neolithic and is associated with a tendency towards increased integration of economic and social units in settlements during the Copper Age.

The Woodland and Mississippian traditions in the prehistory of Midwestern North America

Cultural developments in Midwestern North America between 5000 and 400 B.P. are reviewed and related to two overlapping, but contrasting, cultural traditions: Woodland and Mississippian. Significant changes in prehistoric subsistence systems, settlement patterns, and sociopolitical organization are reviewed within a three-division framework, beginning with a Transitional period (5000–2000 B.P.) when Late Archaic and Early Woodland societies “settled into” different regions, constructed regional markers (cemeteries, mounds, earthworks), and established economic and social relations with both neighboring and more distant groups. This was followed by the Middle Woodland period (2000–1500 B.P.) that is associated with the Hopewell “climax” of long-distance exchange of exotic materials, mound building, and ceremonial activities, although all Middle Woodland groups did not participate in this “Hopewell interaction sphere.” In the Late Prehistoric period (1500–400 B.P.), the Woodland tradition persisted in some areas, while the Mississippian tradition developed from local Late Woodland societies elsewhere. Finally, the patterns of interaction between the two traditions are discussed.

Form and function of early neolithic bifacial stone tools reflects changes in land use practices during the neolithization process in the levant.

For many, climate change is no longer recognized as the primary cause of cultural changes in the Near East. Instead, human landscape degradation, population growth, socioeconomic adjustments, and conflict have been proposed as the mechanisms that shaped the Neolithic Revolution. However, as Bar-Yosef noted, even if there is chronological correlation between climate changes and cultural developments, what is important is to understand how Neolithic societies dealt with these improving or deteriorating environments. Changes in bifacial stone tools provide a framework for examining some of these interactions by focusing on changing land use practices during the Neolithization process. The results of microwear analysis of 40 bifacial artifacts from early Pre-Pottery Neolithic (EPPNB) levels at Motza in the Judean hills document changes during the PPNA–PPNB transition at the onset of the Levantine Moist Period (ca. 8000 cal B.C.) when conditions for agriculture improved. EPPNB villagers added heavy-duty axes to a toolkit they had used for carpentry and began to clear forests for fields and grazing lands. Sustainable forest management continued for the duration of the PPN until the cumulative effects of tree-felling and overgrazing seem to have led to landscape degradation at end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic C (PPNC), when a cold, dry climatic anomaly (6600–6000 cal B.C.) may have accelerated the reduction of woodlands. Early PPNB components at sites like Motza, with data from nearly five millennia of Neolithic occupations, show how complex hunter–gatherers and early food producers were able to establish sustainable resource management systems even as climate changed, population increased, and social relations were redefined.

Tree-Felling, Woodworking, and Changing Perceptions of the Landscape during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods in the Southern Levant

Examination of 206 Neolithic and Chalcolithic bifaces from the southern Levant revealed that changes in form during the emergence of agropastoralism correlated with evolving land use practices, but new biface types also expressed altered social identities and perceptions of the environment. Nonfunctional groundstone pre-pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) bifaces seem to have served as social and status symbols, while flaked flint PPNA tranchet axes and chisels were used for carpentry rather than tree-felling. This pattern continued during the following early pre-pottery Neolithic B (EPPNB) period, but a new sharpening method, polishing, was used on a unique flint tranchet ax to strengthen its edge. By the MPPNB and LPPNB, heavier polished flint axes were used to clear forests for fields, grazing lands, wood fuel, and lumber. Sustainable forest management continued until the cumulative effects of tree-felling may have led to landscape degradation at the end of the PPNC. Adzes replace axes as heavy woodworking tools during the pottery Neolithic A (PNA) period, but by the PNB period, once again there are more carpentry tools than tree-felling bifaces. The trend is reversed again during the Chalcolithic, when the demand for fire wood, lumber, and cleared land seems to have increased during a time of emerging socioeconomic complexity.

Microwear Analysis of a Sample of 100 Chipped Stone Artifacts from the 1971–1977 Excavations at the Seip Earthworks

Abstract A sample of 100 lithic artifacts from seven excavation blocks at the Seip Earthworks was examined for microwear traces. None of the artifacts from Block VII had any microwear traces, but one third of the artifacts from the other six blocks were used for 35 different tasks. All of the drills, bifaces, and scrapers, as well as 60% of the points, 11% of the cores, 50% of the core rejuvenation flakes, 15% of the bladelets, and 3% of the flakes were examined. Most of the utilized Hopewell artifacts were used on fresh hide and/or meat and bone (32%) or dry hide (26%). Seven artifacts were used on bone, stone, or shell (20%), and two tools were used to work bone or antler (6%). Only one Hopewell artifact was used to cut plants or soft wood (3%). The rest of the utilized artifacts in the Seip sample are probably not associated with the Hopewellian occupations. The tools seem to have been used in an expedient fashion. There was no evidence for specialized activities in any of the Seip structures. Almost all of the lithic artifacts were found in secondary contexts. The range of identified activities is consistent with microwear results from other Hopewell sites, but plant processing and wood-working are underrepresented.

Athienou Archaeological Project: Investigations in the Malloura Valley, Cyprus, 1990–1995

AbstractThe Athienou Archaeological Project (AAP) is a multidisciplinary investigation of the site of Athienou Malloura and the surrounding valley in central Cyprus. Since 1990, field survey, geophysical prospecting, and stratigraphic excavations at Athienou Malloura relocated the Cypro-Archaic-Roman sanctuary that was originally discovered in 1862 and exposed portions of the large, nucleated settlement that was founded in the early Roman period. Occupation of this town continued through early Byzantine times, but Malloura was abandoned during the period of Arab–Byzantine conflict in the 7th century A.C. The settlement was re-established during the era of Frankish rule, and finally abandoned late in the 19th century. An archaeological survey of 20 sq km around Athienou Malloura identified 30 sites, including prehistoric lithic workshops, tomb groups dating from the Cypro-Archaic through Roman periods, small Classical-Hellenistic habitation sites, and small hilltop sites utilized from late Roman through Ot...