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This dissertation explores geographic and diachronic variation in Great Plains and Rocky Mountain Paleoindian (12,500-7000 14C years before present) forager exploitation of animal resources in order to explore how use of different habitats influenced land-use and subsistence strategies. To accomplish this goal, this study documented the full range of variability in the Paleoindian record using a combination of published data and new data. These patterns were then compared to explicit predictions derived from behavioral ecology and animal ethology and biology studies. The results, presented in this dissertation, allow the testing of several, often contradictory, important subsistence-settlement hypotheses in current Paleoindian research, specifically the ongoing debate about Paleoindian diet breadth and human causes of megafaunal extinction. Overall, there appears to be a covariance between environmental zone and forager land use. Paleoindian foragers structured their land use according to the presence and nature of a number of important resources within major environmental zones. Specifically, this study finds sites in grassland settings with low diversity of resources have lower artifact densities and are often dominated by exotic lithic raw materials. In these same areas prehistoric groups made almost exclusive use of large fauna. Sites in foothill/mountain or alluvial valley settings with ecologically high density and high diversity have higher proportions of short-term camps than do other areas and those camps have higher artifact density than do other types of sites. These sites exhibit a mixed use of small- and medium-sized game. Overall this study shows Paleoindian hunters had only modest impact on prey species.

The Midsouth has long been known to be a locus of Paleoindian (13,200-10,000 yrs B.P.) populations. Paleoindian populations have generally been characterized as highly mobile hunter-gatherers with egalitarian social structure. Utilizing the theoretical lens of diversification and intensification of resource use, the Late Pleistocene adaptations of the region’s populations are examined from both a large scale or coarse grain perspective as well as more fine grain data from the site level. Previous models of Paleoindian adaptations are defined and tested in this study to determine the applicability of these models with new data. Coarse grain data are derived from lithic raw material use in diagnostic artifacts from six Paleoindian archaeological sites concentrated in the lower Tennessee River Valley that are referred to as the Tennessee-Duck River Paleoindian complex. Numerous Paleoindian projectile points have been recovered from these sites that allow for raw material use across the lower Tennessee River to be evaluated. Site specific data are derived from analysis of lithic artifacts and spatial distributions at the Carson-Conn-Short site (40BN190), also situated in the lower Tennessee River Valley. The Carson-Conn-Short site is a large multi-component Paleoindian site located near the confluence of the Duck and Tennessee Rivers. The regional or coarse grain data indicate a pattern of increasing regionalization and intensification of local resource use. The site level data suggest that the Paleoindian occupants of the Carson-Conn-Short site were more sedentary than previously thought. Traditional thought suggests that large, riverine Paleoindian sites are the product of either aggregation of different groups or re-occupation of the same landform over time. Rather than reflecting aggregation or re-occupation by Late Pleistocene populations, these people continuously occupied the site with minimal movement. The site was continuously occupied through the entirety Late Pleistocene into the Early Holocene. The Carson-Conn-Short site was situated at a particular locale that allowed for access to the greatest diversity of resources and also provided a mechanism that allowed for social information to be transferred via riverine mechanisms. This study suggests that Paleoindian populations in the Midsouth exhibited a greater degree of social complexity and sedentism than previously thought that provided the foundation for the development of agriculture and associated social institutions.

Stratigraphic records in Middle Park in north-central Colorado provide evidence for the late Quaternary geomorphic and environmental history of a non-glaciated Southern Rocky Mountain basin. Episodes of geomorphic instability apparent in the stratigraphic record coincide with changes in paleoenvironmental records from above 2750 m in north-central Colorado, suggesting that the western Middle Park landscape was sensitive to environmental changes affecting the region over the last ~14,000 years. Tributaries were incised prior to 14.0 ka, but deposits older than 12.0 ka are rare. Upland erosion and incision followed by rapid aggradation in alluvial settings between 12.0 and 11.0 ka coincide with evidence for regional temperatures at or above present, and is interpreted to signal the onset of Holocene summer-wet precipitation. A widespread soil-stratigraphic marker represents a long period of landscape stability between <11.0 and 6.0 ka in upland and alluvial settings. Pedologic evidence from upland settings indicates the expansion of grass and forest cover to lower elevations that today are characterized by sagebrush steppe, probably during a period of increased summer precipitation relative to present. During the late Holocene, episodes of aggradation in alluvial valleys at 6.0-1.0 ka and 0.6-0.2 ka and soil formation in uplands at 5.0-3.5 ka and 2.5-1.0 ka overlap with evidence for cooling at higher elevations. Incision of valley floors documented at 1.0-0.6 ka and during the last few centuries and episodes of erosion in uplands at 3.5-2.5 ka, after 1.0 ka, and within the last few centuries, are roughly synchronous with evidence for warming. Upland and alluvial stratigraphic records are interpreted to indicate that during cool intervals summer precipitation was diminished, resulting in relative hillslope stability and gradual valley bottom aggradation, while pulses in summer precipitation accompanying warmer episodes caused basin-wide geomorphic instability. The recent increasing frequency of geomorphic instability appears to correspond with an increase in sagebrush steppe at the expense of forest and grass cover, interpreted to represent progressive drying during the late Holocene. It stands to reason that future warming, if accompanied by similar patterns in precipitation, will result in continued erosion on a landscape already at a threshold of geomorphic instability.

A análise de microartefatos não é rotineiramente realizada no Brasil. Porém, devido às particularidades envolvidas em seu transporte e deposição geológica, os microartefatos podem fornecer informações específicas e complementares para a compreensão do contexto pedogeomorfológico dos sítios arqueológicos estudados, permitindo uma melhor compreensão da gênese, cronologia e processos de formação desses sítios, justificando, deste modo, a necessidade de sua análise. A presente pesquisa realizou a análise de microartefatos em três sítios arqueológicos localizados no município de Rio Claro e municípios vizinhos, o sítio Lagoa do Camargo (Rio Claro), o sítio Abrigo do Alvo (Analândia) e o sítio Alice Boer (Rio Claro), de forma a auxiliar nas pesquisas arqueológicas destes, com dados novos e complementares. Cada um dos sítios arqueológicos propostos como estudo de caso apresenta um contexto pedogeomorfológico muito distinto. O primeiro encontra-se próximo ao divisor de águas, o segundo encontra-se dentro de um abrigo e, por fim, o terceiro encontra-se em uma área de baixo terraço fluvial. Os dados coletados na análise de microartefatos auxiliam para uma melhor compreensão dos processos pedogeomorfológicos de formação e de como ocorrem os processos de transporte e deposição de cada sítio. Dunnel e Stein (1989) definem microartefatos como vestígios de atividade humana que apresentam tamanho reduzido, com limite entre 2 mm e 0,25 mm. Segundo os autores, um artefato é qualquer objeto que apresente atributos artificiais. Podem ter suas propriedades alteradas pela ação humana, sua localização alterada pela ação humana ou ainda podem ocorrer as duas situações. Foram testadas diferentes formas de processar os sedimentos, como elutriação com utilização de agitador mecânica, agitador de Wagner (rotativo) e aparelho de ultrassom, e depois comparados os resultados com o intuito de buscar o melhor método de elutriação para processar os sedimentos. Também foi feita uma experiência com microesferas de polietileno como amostra implantada para procurar estabelecer um número de grãos suficiente à contagem para detectar com eficácia o número de microartefatos de um local. Foi possível observar que a elutriação não afetou o resultado final e que a contagem por peso é muito mais eficaz do que por quantidade de grãos. / In Brazil, micro artifacts analysis is not common. Nevertheless, due to the micro artifacts\' transportation and geological deposition particularities, they can provide specific and complementary information to understand the pedomorphological context of the studied archeological sites. These informations allow us to better understand the genesis, chronology and formation processes of these sites, justifying the need for its analysis. This study analyzed micro artifacts from three archeological sites - Lagoa do Camargo site (Rio Claro), Abrigo do Alvo site (Analândia), and Alice Boer site (Rio Claro) - localized in Rio Claro region. Our goal is to provide new subsidiary data to these sites\' archeological research. Each one of these sites presents a distinct pedomorphological context. The first site is found next to the water divisor, the second site is inside a shelter, and de third site is found in a low river terrace area. The data collected in the micro artifact analysis help understanding the pedomorphological formation processes and how the deposition and transport processes occur in each site. Dunnel e Stein (1989) define micro artifacts as human activity traces with reduced size, limited between 2 mm and 0.25 mm. According to the authors, artifacts are any objects that present artificial attributes. They can have their properties or location, or even both of them, altered by human action. Different ways of sediments processing were tested, such as elutriation using mechanical stirrer, Wagner\'s stirrer (rotative), and ultrasonic device. Then, the results were compared so we could select the best elutriation method for processing the sediments. We also tried to establish a sufficient grain number to the counting experimenting polyethylene microspheres as implanted sample so we could detect efficiently a site\'s micro artifacts number. We observed that elutriation did not affect the final result, and that counting by weight is way more effective than counting by grains\' quantity.

This dissertation presents new data on early Paleoindian stone technologies in the Southern Plains periphery. Analyses of lithic artifact assemblages show that significant technological changes occurred between the transitions from pre-Clovis to Clovis and from Clovis to Folsom/Midland. After an initial introduction to the problems in chapter one, a detailed technological description of the pre-Clovis assemblage from the Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas is presented. Site-scale and general technological comparisons to Clovis reveal similarities and differences. I conclude that the pre-Clovis assemblage at Friedkin cannot be considered Clovis, but could represent an ancestral technological assemblage. The third chapter presents the analysis of Clovis bifaces from the Hogeye site, Texas. I identify patterns in the biface reduction process and suggest that these patterns could be use to distinguish between regional Clovis cultural signatures and the idiosyncrasies of individual Clovis flintknappers. The fourth chapter compares Clovis and Folsom/Midland technologies and site-use at a single site, the Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas. I show that while late-stage biface reduction and point production were the focus of both occupations, Folsom/Midland groups also reduced some early- or middle- stage bifacial cores. More broadly, the Friedkin site shows that Clovis and Folsom/Midland settlement along Buttermilk Creek varied. Ultimately, this dissertation provides new evidence of possible Clovis origins, documents Clovis biface reduction signatures, and identifies site-use and technological similarities and differences between Clovis and Folsom/Midland. Defining and comparing early Paleoindian adaptations and technologies is key to understanding how humans dispersed into North America and how they adapted to new and changing environments during the last Ice Age.

This dissertation presents new data on Clovis site occupation, technological organization, and settlement in the American Southeast. Evidence suggests that traditionally-accepted, western-centric models do not fully explain Clovis technological characteristics and settlement patterns in the region. My second chapter presents the results of a 40 square meter block excavation on the Topper site (SC) hillside where a buried Clovis assemblage has been recovered. I review the site geomorphology and formation processes to evaluate the context of the Clovis component, characterize the Clovis assemblage and the horizontal distribution of artifacts to understand how the Clovis occupants used this portion of the site, and compare these excavation results to the rest of the archaeological record at Topper to discuss the general nature of the Clovis occupation there. My third chapter focuses on the 174 bifaces from Topper to understand biface production. I present the process of manufacture then measure the variation in production characteristics at the site in terms of our current knowledge of Clovis biface technology. I conclude that Topper flintknappers used reduction strategies typical of Clovis-but created a biface assemblage with greater flexibility in design than documented at most other Clovis sites. Clovis groups adapted to local resource conditions and adjusted the organization of their technology accordingly. My fourth chapter analyzes southeastern Clovis point data and biface assemblages from Carson-Conn-Short (TN), Topper, and Williamson (VA) to test the technological implications of Kelly and Todd’s (1988) high-technology-forager model and Anderson’s (1990) staging-area model. Significant subregional variation exists in Clovis biface systems, such as differences in point morphology and the tempo of biface reduction. This variation suggests the subregions represent distinct populations who distinctly altered aspects of their technology but maintained fundamental elements of the Clovis tradition. Ultimately, I demonstrate there was greater variability in Clovis behavior across America. Recognizing regional variation in the archaeological record is key to understanding the complexities of Clovis origins and dispersal.

This thesis uses experimental archaeology as a method to discover the functional differences between Clovis and Folsom projectile points filtered through a behavioral ecology paradigm. Porcelain is used as a substitute for tool stone for its consistency and control value. The experiment was devised to find out which technology, Clovis or Folsom, was more functional, had a higher curation rate and contributed to increased group subsistence. Paleoindian tool technology transitions can be seen as indicators for adaptation triggered by environmental conditions and changes in subsistence. Folsom technology, when compared to Clovis technology, was functionally superior in performance, refurbishment and curation. Technological design choices made by Folsom people were engineered toward producing a more functional tool system as a sustainable form of risk management. The Clovis Folsom Breakage Experiment indicates that Folsom tool technology was specifically adapted to bison subsistence based on increased functionality and curation.

My dissertation project utilizes a theoretical perspective derived from historical ecology to explore the trajectory in prehistoric subsistence that began with the initial colonization of the region and eventually led to the domestication of indigenous plants, such as goosefoot and maygrass, roughly 5,000 calendar years ago. Because a major handicap for exploring prehistoric subsistence in eastern North America is the rarity of sites with preserved flora and fauna, I apply formal models derived from behavioral ecology to stone tool assemblages and archaeological site distributions to evaluate models that have been proposed for the emergence of domesticated plants. Based on my results, I argue that the origins of plant domestication came about within the context of a boom/bust cycle that has its roots in the Late Pleistocene and culminated in the Mid-Holocene. More specifically, warming climate caused a significant peak in the availability of shellfish, oak, hickory, and deer, which generated a "tipping point" during the Middle Archaic period where hunter-gatherer groups narrowed their focus on these resources. After this "boom" ended, some groups shifted to other plant resources that they could intensively exploit in the same manner as oak and hickory, which included the suite of plants that were subsequently domesticated. This is likely due the combined effects of increasing population and declining returns from hunting, which is evident in my analysis of biface technological organization and site distributions from the lower Tennessee and Duck River Valleys. Consequently, these conclusions are an alternative to Smith's (2011) assertion that plant domestication in eastern North America came about as a result of gradual niche construction with no evidence for resource imbalance or population packing.