End scrapers were an "all purpose" tool that have been associated with processes such as planing or shaving vegetal resources, shaping bone or antler implements, and to render hide into usable fabric. Examining end scrapers from four different archaeological sites on the North Umpqua River of southwestern Oregon provided interesting data regarding the use of these tools over time. Each site consists of at least one, or several, occupational components providing an opportunity to compare similarities and differences between sites. Analyses rely in part on the comparison of multi-dimensional characteristics, or allometry, of the stone tools. Statistically, the relationship between the length of an end scraper and its thickest point has been previously suggested to be demonstrative of the original size of the tool. A similar conclusion was acquired during this analysis, which then sought to determine if a discard ratio for each site could be established based on the length and edge angle of the end scrapers. The discard ratio was originally thought to represent a reflection of functional efficiency, differential resource processing, or material availability. A bulk analysis of material types from the overall assemblages and a comparison of end scraper composition suggested intensive use of obsidian, the non-local material. Overall, trends could not be demonstrated using the discard ratio to represent the degree of use as end scrapers size depends on lithic technology, material availability, and perhaps a specific need. Perhaps the most intriguing outcome of this study relates to the individual Middle Archaic component at the Meg's Keep site. Based on the large obsidian artifact assemblage, this site is thought to have been a task specific location and that the large number of end scrapers recovered were manufactured elsewhere and imported to the site. Comparing end scrapers at each site suggested that Type 1 scraper (≥7.5 mm) may be an indicator of curation. The analyses indicate that Type 1 CCS end scrapers at Canton Creek, Dry Creek, and Boulder Confluence out-numbered Type 3 scrapers 20 to 4. In contrast, the large number of end scrapers at Meg's Keep had a total of 9 Type 1 end scrapers. From the above data, Type 1 and Type 3 end scrapers appear to be a direct result of the availability of raw material and potentially an indicator of curation. / Graduation date: 2005

Thesis (M.A.)--Oregon State University, 2007. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-163). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden, 1998. / "Stellingen" ([1] leaf) inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 187-193). Also available online.

No description available.

The Maya sites of Marco Gonzalez and San Pedro are located on the southern end of Ambergris Caye, a limestone-based coral island off the coast of modern-day Belize. When combined, the archaeological settlements at these sites represent some of the longest occupations in coastal Belize. Evidence suggests the earliest occupation occurred at Marco Gonzalez in the Late Preclassic and extended into the Late Postclassic, while San Pedro's population thrived well into the Historic period. An analysis of the stone tools recovered from excavations at Marco Gonzalez and San Pedro and a study of the use-wear patterns on these artifacts has revealed that the Maya from both sites were primarily engaged in subsistence-based activities with a limited amount of small-scale craft production. Use-wear evidence suggests that the majority of these activities focused on the exploitation of local resources necessary in everyday Maya life. The activities included the acquisition of seafoods such as fish and molluscs, and the preservation and/or processing of fish and other marine by-products, such as shell, coral, and stingray spines for both local use and trade. As consumer sites, the Caye inhabitants offered many of these products in exchange for stone tools produced in mainland workshops, such as Colha, in the 'chert-bearing zone' of Northern Belize. In addition to the local and regional trade of marine resources and salt, the sites of Marco Gonzalez and San Pedro served as transshipment points for the long-distance exchange of valuable wealth or prestige goods along the coast. The large inland site of Lamanai likely served as ally and trade partner with these sites based on archaeological evidence for socioeconomic and sociopolitical ties between this mainland centre and the smaller Caye settlements. This relationship assisted the Maya from southern Ambergris Caye in surviving the breakdown in trade relations and depopulation that plagued other Maya centres in the Late to Terminal

No description available.

Teilw. zugl: Diss. u.d.T.: Lengyel, Györgyi: Lithic technology of the Upper Palaeolithic and Epipalaeolithic of Raqefet Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel.

Although grindstones - that is, pairs of stone implements used to grind, pound, pulverise or otherwise process intermediate materials - have been intensively studied by archaeologists in other parts of the world, in southern Africa to date they have received little attention. Despite a near-ubiquitous presence on Middle and Later Stone Age archaeological sites, their primary function in archaeological reconstructions has been as proxies for other behaviours. These include behavioural modernity; gender; particular plant types, such as geophytes/underground storage organs. This doctoral thesis interrogates grindstones with a view not only to establishing specific (rather than proxy) uses in the southern African archaeological record,but also as a means to explore the gathered side of hunter-gatherer lifeways, which have also historically been neglected. It does this by developing a methodological toolkit for grindstone analysis in southern Africa. Comparison of archaeological and historical literature from the southern African Grassland Biome and elsewhere suggests a tension between archaeological accounts which posit geophyte and mineral pigment grinding as a primary purpose for grindstones and ethnohistorical accounts suggesting that grass-processing was a staple of hunter-gatherer life. Finally, a corpus of putative grindstones from the site of Ha Makotoko in western Lesotho is typologically assessed and analysed for plant starches and phytoliths. It emerges that at this site, and in contrast to received wisdom, geophyte grinding was not extensive but by contrast, grass seed processing was practised. This belies models suggesting that C4 grass seeds were unlikely to have contributed to hunter-gatherer diets, and questions interpretations of grass 'bedding' as well as the distinction between 'forager' and 'farmer'. Most importantly, this thesis validates the idea that grindstone study is worthwhile, and should be integrated into wider lithic study in southern Africa as a matter of course.

No description available.

The spatial distribution of chipped lithic artifacts excavated at site 35C05, a Chinookan plankhouse of the protohistoric period, was observed to test the hypothesis that a gradient of material culture -- reflecting social status -- should be evident within the plankhouse, ranging from the highest to the lowest social rank. Prior to the spatial analysis, use-wear analysis was used to evaluate the classificatory labels used to describe the assemblage by a previous researcher. The use-wear analysis largely confirmed the functional classification of chipped lithic artifacts used by the previous researcher. The spatial analyses revealed that while most tool types were rather evenly distributed throughout the plankhouse interior (taphonomic factors having been considered), cutting, graving and scraping tools (as well as some characteristics of these tools, such as raw material quality) were significantly unevenly distributed, correlating with the hypothesized gradient of social rank aligned with the long axis of the plankhouse. Further analyses strongly suggested that one or more labor specialists, using high frequencies of graving tools, were inhabitants of the elite portion of the plankhouse. Most domestic activities reflected by the stone tools of this assemblage were engaged in by plankhouse inhabitants of all social ranks. Knowing that this is the case, as well as that in some instances there is compelling evidence for status-determined labor specialization, aids in our understanding of the character of aboriginal social structure on the Pacific Northwest Coast.