Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-tn8tq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-05T18:24:36.569Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Aboriginal Thermal Alteration of a Central Pennsylvania Jasper: Analytical and Behavioral Implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Debra L. Schindler
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003
James W. Hatch
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
Conran A. Hay
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
Richard C. Bradt
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802

Abstract

The aboriginal thermal processing of Bald Eagle Jasper in Central Pennsylvania is described in terms of the chemical and physical changes that occur in this material. Heat treatment is shown to transform the jasper's geothite component to hematite and to improve its workability by reducing its fracture toughness by one-half. This is accompanied by a yellow to red color change. The role of thermal alteration in the local lithic technology is inferred from laboratory heating experiments and from an analysis of lithic artifacts from the Houserville Site (36 Ce 65), a jasper workshop. The prehistoric utilization of this material is analyzed from a regional perspective. The results have implications for aboriginal social organization in Central Pennsylvania.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Anderson, D. C. 1971 Notes on Tongue River silicified sediments. Newsletter of the Northwest Chapter of the Iowa Archaeological Society 19(5):45.Google Scholar
Bebrich, Carl A. 1971 Prehistory at Sheep Rock Shelter; a study in the systematics of lithic artifact analysis. Unpublished master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University.Google Scholar
Bradley, Bruce A. 1975 Lithic reduction sequences: a glossary and discussion. In Lithic Technology, edited by Swanson, E., pp. 513. Mouton, The Hague.Google Scholar
Brennan, Louis A. 1977 The lower Hudson: the Archaic. In Amerinds and their paleoenvironments in Northeastern North America, edited by Walter Newman, S. and Bert, Salwen, pp. 411430. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 288.Google Scholar
Broyles, B. J. 1971 The St. Albans Site, Kanawha County, West Virginia: second preliminary report. West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey. Morgantown, West Virginia.Google Scholar
Calkin, Parker E., and Miller, Kathleen E. 1977 Late Quaternary environment and man in western New York. In Amerinds and their paleoenvironments in Northeastern North America, edited by Walter Newman, S. and Bert, Salwen, pp. 297315. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 288.Google Scholar
Coe, Joffre L. 1964 The Formative cultures of the Carolina piedmont. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society ns. 54 (5).Google Scholar
Collins, Michael B., and Fenwick, Jason M. 1974 Heat treating of chert: methods of interpretation and their application. Plains Anthropologist 19: 135145.Google Scholar
Collins, M. B. 1975 Lithic technology as a means of processual inference. In Lithic technology, edited by Swanson, E., pp. 1534. Mouton, The Hague.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crabtree, Don E., and Butler, B. Robert 1964 Notes on experiments in flintknapping: 1. heat treatment of silica materials. Tebiwa 7:16.Google Scholar
Dana, lames Dwight, and Edward, Salisbury Dana 1962 The system of mineralogy, Vol. III, silica minerals (seventh ed.). Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Dasgupta, D. R. 1955 Effects of catalytic agents on the phase transformation of goethite. Proceedings of the National Institute of Science of India 214:338352.Google Scholar
Derr, W. A., Howie, R. A., and Zussman, J. 1967 Hock-/orming minerals, Vol. 5, non-silicates. Longmans, London.Google Scholar
Ellis, Holmes H. 1940 Flint working techniques of the American Indians: an experimental study. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Sociology, Ohio State University.Google Scholar
Evans, A. G. and Charles, E. A. 1976 Fracture toughness determination by indentation. Journal o/American Ceramic Society 59:37172.Google Scholar
Flenniken, J. Jeffrey, and Ervan, G. Garrison 1975 Thermally altered novaculite and stone tool manufacturing techniques. Journal of Field Archeology 2:125131.Google Scholar
Froncombe, M. H., and Rooksby, H. P. 1959 Structure transformations effected by the dehydration of diaspore, goethite, and delta ferric oxide. Clay Minerals Bulletin 4:114.Google Scholar
Funk, Robert E. 1976 Recent contributions to Hudson Valley prehistory. New York State Museum and Science Service Memoir 22. The State Education Department, Albany.Google Scholar
Hay, Conran A. 1980 An analysis of the chipped stone assemblages from the National Register Survey. In The Fisher Farm site: a late Woodland village in context, edited by Hatch, J. W., pp. 6582. Occasional Papers in Anthropology No. 12. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.Google Scholar
Hertzberg, Richard W. 1976 De/ormation and fracture mechanics of engineering materials. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Holmes, W. H. 1891 Manufacture of stone arrow points. American Anthropologist 4:4958. JCPDS (Joint Council for Powder Diffraction Studies) Swarthmore, PAGoogle Scholar
Adovasio, J. M. 1978a (5-0490) α-SiO2 alpha quartz.Google Scholar
Adovasio, J. M. 1978b (17-536) α-FeO(OH), Fe2O 3 H2 O , iron oxide hydroxide, goethite.Google Scholar
Adovasio, J. M. 1978c (13-534) α-Fe2O3, alpha iron oxide, hematite. Kerkhof, Frank, and Hansjürgen Müller-BeckGoogle Scholar
Holmes, W. H. 1969 Zur Bruchmechanischen Deutung der Schlogmarken an Steingeräten. Glastechnische Berichte 42:439448.Google Scholar
Klippel, W. E. 1970 Preliminary observations on heat treated chert from Late Archaic and Woodland sites along the southern border of the Prairie Peninsula in Missouri. Missouri Archeological Society Newsletter 239:17.Google Scholar
Knowles, F. H. S. 1953 Stone-worker's progress: a study of stone implements in the Pitt-Rivers Museum. Occasional Papers on Technology 6. Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford University.Google Scholar
Lawn, R., and Wilshaw, T. R. 1975 Fracture of brittle solids. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.Google Scholar
Mackenzie, Robert C. 1957 The oxides of iron, aluminum, and manganese. In The differential thermal analysis of clays, pp. 299328. Mineral Society of London.Google Scholar
Mandeville, M. D. 1973 A consideration of the thermal pretreatment of chert. Plains Anthropologist 18:177202.Google Scholar
Melcher, C. L., and Zimmerman, D. W. 1977 Thermoluminescent determination of prehistoric heat treatment of chert artifacts. Science 197:CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Melcher, C. L., and Zimmerman, D. W. 1359-1362.Google Scholar
Mendelovici, E., Yariv, S., and Villaba, R. 1979 Aluminum-bearing goethite in Venezuelan laterites. Clays and Clay Minerals 27:313321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mewhinney, Hubert 1957 A manual for Neanderthals. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Munsell, A. 1946 Color notation (tenth ed.). Munsell Color Company, Baltimore.Google Scholar
Purdy, Barbara A. 1975 Fractures for the archaeologist. In Lithic technology: making and using stone tools, edited by Earl, H. Swanson, pp. 133141. Aldine, Chicago.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Purdy, Barbara A., and Brooks, H. K. 1971 Thermal alteration of silica minerals: an archaeological approach. Science 173:322325.Google Scholar
Rick, John Winfield 1978 Heat altered cherts of the lower Illinois Valley. An experimental study in prehistoric technology. Northwestern University Archaeological Program Prehistoric fiecords, No. 2. Evanston, Illinois.Google Scholar
Ritchie, William A. 1961 A typology and nomenclature for New York State projectile points. New York State Museum and Science Service, Bulletin 384. Albany.Google Scholar
Ritchie, W. A., and Funk, R. E. 1973 Aboriginal settlement patterns in the Northeast. New York State Museum and Science Service Memoir 20. The State Education Department, Albany.Google Scholar
Sollberger, J. B., and Thomas, Roy Hester 1973 Some additional data on the thermal alteration of siliceous stone. Bulletin of the Oklahoma Anthropological Society 21:181185.Google Scholar
Tullis, J. 1970 Quartz: preferred orientation in rocks produced by dauphine twinning. Science 168:13421344.Google Scholar
Turnbaugh, W. A. 1977 Man, land, and time. Unigraphic, Evansville, Indiana.Google Scholar
Warren, Richard 1978 Measurement of the fracture properties of brittle solids by Hertzien indentation. Acta Metallurgica 26:17591769.Google Scholar
Webster, David, M. Aldenderfer, Hatch, J., and Hay, C. 1977 The Milesburg Site: a hunting camp in central Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 47(4): 3747.Google Scholar
Weymouth, J. H., and Williamson, W. O. 1951 Some physical properties of raw and calcined flint. Mineralogical Magazine 213:573593.Google Scholar