The Clovis caches in this study consist of assemblages of tools left behind in an
area either for future use or as ritual offerings. Clovis caches are the earliest of such
assemblages known in North America. This research specifically examines a sample of
four caches: East Wenatchee from Douglas County, Washington; Anzick from Park
County, Montana; Simon from Camas County, Idaho; and Fenn, inferred to be from
Sweetwater County, Wyoming. The artifact types in this study include fluted points,
bifaces, blades, flakes, bone rods, and miscellaneous. The variables used in this study
include maximum length, mid-length and maximum width, thickness,
(length*width*thickness)/1000, length/width, and width/thickness; using millimeters as
the basic measurement unit. This study utilizes five methods in the study of the caches:
descriptive statistics, factor analysis, cluster analysis, correspondence analysis, and
geoarchaeology. The descriptive statistics reveal the most prominent trends that become
more apparent in the subsequent statistical analyses. Such trends include East Wenatchee
containing the largest points but the smallest bifaces, Anzick and Simon having
significant biface variation, Fenn tending to be average in most respects, and bone rods
being larger in East Wenatchee than they are in Anzick. The factor analysis explores the
relationships between the variables and assigns them to larger components. Length, width, thickness, and length*width*thickness comprise the size component, and
length/width and width/thickness make up the shape component. The cluster analysis
examines the artifacts within each site and between all sites to identify the most
appropriate grouping arrangements based on similarities in artifact measurements. The
general results show that fluted points form three clusters according to size more than
shape, bifaces are highly variable but have no obvious clusters, and bone rods form three
clusters with the first two being strictly divided by site. The correspondence analysis
shows that the differences in count data between caches appear to relate to the geographic
distances between them. Finally, geoarchaeological analysis posits that East Wenatchee
has no discernable pit feature, Anzick contains only one human burial, Simon was not
deposited in a pluvial lake, and Fenn would have been shallowly buried but was probably
disturbed by erosion.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/3276 |
| Date | 12 April 2006 |
| Creators | Lassen, Robert Detlef |
| Contributors | Carlson, David L. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 7399813 bytes, 181760 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, application/vnd.ms-excel, born digital |
Page generated in 0.0014 seconds