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Unproductive Lithic Resources at Lake Mead

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Kathryn A. Kamp  and
John C. Whittaker
Kathryn A. Kamp
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA 50112
John C. Whittaker
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA 50112
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Abstract

Artifacts from 24 chipping stations and a lithic scatter from the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada were analyzed by refitting conjoinable flakes to original cores. Artifacts represented debitage from the initial reduction of locally-available low-quality chalcedony nodules for the eventual production of flake tools. The refitting analysis allowed the debitage to be divided into four patterns that roughly correlate with variation in the quality of the raw material. All result from the same strategy of reduction aimed at producing as many usable flakes as possible from low-quality material. Such relatively unproductive sites are rarely studied in detail because they require intensive analysis, but were probably an important part of prehistoric resource systems.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , April 1986 , pp. 383 - 388
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1986

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References

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