No description available.

If the products of individual craftsmen can be identified, patterns of organization, specialization, and exchange may be traceable. Following a description of Grasshopper Pueblo's lithic technology, experimental and archaeological data on individual knappers are combined to examine projectile point manufacture. At Grasshopper, points in burials formed sets, consistent and distinctive in form and in flake scar patterning. The sets appeared to be the work of different knappers. Major distinguishing attributes of sets were identified using discriminant analysis. Both attributes of form, which are partly under conscious control, and unconsciously varied attributes of flake scar patterning distinguished sets. The individualistic nature of variation in these attributes was tested using sets of replicated points by five modern knappers. The similarity in the behavior of the attributes supported the hypothesis that the burial sets can be attributed to different knappers. In addition to the burial sets, another burial with 128 points, and two rooms with point manufacturing debris were examined. It appeared that more than ten knappers had contributed to the one burial, and the two rooms represented different workshop situations. In Room 28 almost all the lithic material came from point manufacture, and the points were similar and probably made by one knapper. Room 246 had a variety of points, plus many other lithic items, and is best interpreted as a communal room where a number of men pursued craft activities. Point sets, workshops, and other information indicate that at Grasshopper many knappers were producing lithic tools at only a low level of specialization. Grasshopper's lithic crafts were probably similar in their organization to crafts in the historic Pueblos, with no centralization of production or distribution. Until we have more detailed information on other crafts, reconstructions of the prehistoric Pueblos as highly organized and specialized centers for production and distribution should be received with caution. Studies of individual variation are difficult and time-consuming, but even less sensitive artifacts such as stone tools show individual differences. If individual craftsmen can be traced, it is sometimes possible to see how they cooperated, specialized, and participated in the economic and social life of their communities.

No description available.

This study is designed to investigate patterns of lithic technological variability in relation to settlement strategies that were employed by late prehistoric inhabitants of central and southern regions of interior British Columbia. The research contributes to current archaeological method through an experimental program of stone tool manufacture, and also to current understanding of Interior Plateau prehistory, through a multiregiohal analysis of technological variability. The first stage of the study involves conducting a controlled experiment, to determine the degree to which lithic debitage can be used to predict stages of chipped stone tool manufacture, and to devise an efficient means of classifying debitage into general reduction stages. The experiment is unique in providing control over the precise sequential removal of flakes, and also in examining quantitative variability in debitage that have been produced as the by-products of the manufacture of several tools and cores. The result of the experimental program is the formulation of a debitage classification that classifies flakes into early, middle or late reduction stages, and also into bifacial and bipolar reduction types. The archaeological analyses in the second major stage of the research use the debitage reduction stage classification and the occurrence of various lithic tools to examine the nature of interassemblage variability across the 38 sites from four regions of the Interior Plateau. A total of 14,541 flakes, 164 cores and 861 tools from the Eagle Lake, Mouth of the Chilcotin, Lillooet and Hat Creek regions are analyzed, using multivariate and bivariate quantitative methods. Three hypotheses relevant to lithic technology and hunter- gatherer archaeology are evaluated in this stage of the study. The analyses first employ the experimental debitage classification to obtain interpretable patterns of inter-assemblage similarities and differences. Multivariate analysis shows that several kinds of sites defined on the basis of features can be grouped by their predominance of early/core reduction, middle/wide ranging reduction, and late/ maintenance reduction debitage. The first formal hypothesis tested is that obsidian and chert raw materials should evidence patterns of conservation and economizing behavior by virtue of their geological scarcity in relation to vitreous basalt raw material. A series of chi-square tests demonstrates that debitage frequencies by reduction stage are proportionately equal for these three raw materials in all but the Mouth of the Chilcotin region. In all regions, except Lillooet where tool sample sizes are too small for reliable testing, tool sizes and scar counts show no significant difference attributable to raw materials. A slight trend is noted for chert tools to be larger and simpler than vitreous basalt or obsidian tools. A set of bivariate graphs demonstrates that while lithic raw materials may be reduced in highly similar manners, one raw material may have served to replace another. The second hypothesis, that tool curation and maintenance strongly affects assemblage composition, is first tested by examining tool assemblage measures that have been suggested by recent lithic technological models. Assemblages are highly variable with respect to the numbers of tools left at sites in relation to the intensity of tool maintenance that occurred at sites. The third hypothesis tested is that a set of site occupation purposes can be reliably predicted on the basis of debitage reduction stages and a functional tool classification. Using multiple discriminant analysis, house-pit sites are accurately predicted at an 80% rate, and lithic scatters without features are accurately predicted at a rate of 60%. Lithic scatters with housepits achieve 86% correct classification; lithic scatters with cachepits are correctly classified at a rate of 75%; and lithic scatters with fire-cracked rock are accurately predicted 80% of the time. The results of this analysis are further strengthened by removing an ambiguous assemblage from consideration. The most significant findings of the multiregional analyses are those of definite tool cuiration patterns as evidenced in the raw material analysis, and the occupation span inferences of the tool maintenance analysis. Overall, it has been demonstrated that an experimentally obtained stage classification of debitage enables the derivation of behavioral inferences that could not be currently obtained by other means. In its multiregional perspective, this study has shown that processes of lithic assemblage formation are largely independent of regional provenience and more dependent on settlement purpose. Overall, the greatest determinant of assemblage variability is inferred to be site occupation span. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

Fifteen bone tool assemblages from shell midden sites were compared. Three of these are unpublished sites from Prince Rupert Harbor. They were grouped using cluster analysis. Inter and intragroup variation in bone tool assemblage structure was analyzed. One of the objectives of this study was to generate hypotheses about the function of the unpublished sites by comparing their bone tool assemblages with those from sites which are better understood by looking for underlying patterns in the bone tool assemblages. Other objectives were to test the utility of using bone tool assemblages as a diagnostic tool in analyzing sites and to test the utility of the cluster analysis procedure with this data set. Hypotheses were developed identifying possible site usage at the three Prince Rupert Harbor sites, Boardwalk (GbTo-31), Garden Island (GbTo-23), and Grassy Bay (GbTn-1). Bone tool assemblages were shown to be a useful aid in site analysis and cluster analysis was quite useful in identifying existing patterns in these data.