Defining Cumberland Lithic Technology: A Study of Biface Technological Variation and Landuse Patterns

Summary

Cumberland fluted-bifaces are recognized as being lanceolate, full-fluted points that immediately post-date Clovis in the Midsouth United States. A review of the existing literature reveals brief descriptions of morphology, preliminary explanations of production technology, and speculation about regional fluted-point chronologies. This study examines Cumberland fluted-point technology and regional landuse patterns to develop a greater understanding of human adaptive behaviors during the Younger Dryas. Cumberland biface technology is characterized here based on data collected throughout the entire Midsouth region. Additionally, a model of Cumberland regional landuse was constructed and is compared to Clovis and Dalton landuse patterns. The results of this research help to formally define Cumberland fluted-bifaces as a distinct late Pleistocene technological complex based on aspects of point morphology and landuse patterns.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage