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Nine-thousand years of optimal toolstone selection through the North American Holocene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2019

Jeremy C. Williams ,
Diana M. Simone ,
Briggs Buchanan ,
Matthew T. Boulanger ,
Michelle R. Bebber  and
Metin I. Eren
Jeremy C. Williams
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Kent State University, 221 McGilvrey Hall, 325 South Lincoln Street, Kent, OH 44242, USA
Diana M. Simone
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Kent State University, 221 McGilvrey Hall, 325 South Lincoln Street, Kent, OH 44242, USA
Briggs Buchanan
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Tulsa, Harwell Hall, 800 South Tucker Drive, Tulsa, OK 74104, USA
Matthew T. Boulanger
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, 6425 Boaz Lane, Dallas, TX 75205, USA
Michelle R. Bebber
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Kent State University, 750 Hilltop Drive, Kent, OH 44242, USA
Metin I. Eren
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Kent State University, 750 Hilltop Drive, Kent, OH 44242, USA Department of Archaeology, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, 1 Wade Oval, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA
Corresponding
E-mail address:
meren@kent.edu
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Abstract

Stone was a critical resource for prehistoric hunter-gatherers. Archaeologists, therefore, have long argued that these groups would actively have sought out stone of ‘high quality’. Although the defining of quality can be a complicated endeavour, researchers in recent years have suggested that stone with fewer impurities would be preferred for tool production, as it can be worked and used in a more controllable way. The present study shows that prehistoric hunter-gatherers at the Holocene site of Welling, in Ohio, USA, continuously selected the ‘purest’ stone for over 9000 years.

Keywords

North America Welling Holocene stone tools raw material economy
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 93 , Issue 368 , April 2019 , pp. 313 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2019 

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