Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The archaeological literature is full of different ways of conducting debitage analysis to address research questions. The recurrent critiques include (1) the large amount of time needed to record flake types or flake attributes, (2) the implicit subjectivity in defining analytical units, (3) the unjustified assumptions that are made in defining classes of objects or selecting attributes for recordation, and (4) the lack of comparability of the data recorded across assemblages. All these critiques have missed the point. Debitage analysis objectives may be focused or broad, but in either case, the analyses should explicitly support the goals of the endeavor. The papers in this symposium provide examples of debitage analysis practices that have successfully addressed the research goals of the analyst and/or have provided insights into the best ways of extracting the specific information needed.

Other Keywords
Lithic Analysis • Paleolithic • Material Culture and Technology • Hunter-Gatherers/Foragers • Experimental Archaeology • Technology • Site Formation • Debitage Analysis • Formation Processes • Landscape Archaeology

Geographic Keywords
United States of America (Country) • North America (Continent) • North America • United Mexican States (Country) • Department of Martinique (Country) • Republic of El Salvador (Country) • Department of Guadeloupe (Country) • Cayman Islands (Country) • Antigua and Barbuda (Country) • Turks and Caicos Islands (Country)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-11 of 11)

  • Documents (11)
Documents
  • Analysis of Debitage from an Intentionally Burned House at the Greenbrier Site (3IN1), a Late Mississippian Town in the White River Valley of Arkansas (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Juliet Morrow.

    This is an abstract from the "Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Located at the eastern edge of the Ozarks, the Greenbrier site is in a unique ecotonal location in close proximity to a diversity of lithic resources in the middle White River Basin. Ceramics at Greenbrier indicate that people here were closely connected to towns on the upper and lower White River and also to occupants in...

  • Approaches to Lithic Technology: How Archaeological Practice Influences Interpretation of Past Lifeways through the Lens of Kharaneh IV (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lisa Maher. Danielle Macdonald. Theresa Barket. Ahmad Thaher.

    This is an abstract from the "Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cultural affiliation and change in the Epipaleolithic (EP) period of Southwest Asia has historically been marked through microlithic stone tool technologies, where stone tool manufacturing is focused on the production of a large number of small bladelets then retouched into various microlith types. While researchers...

  • Assessing Change over Time at Kharaneh IV through the Chaîne Opératoire (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Danielle Macdonald. Lisa Maher. Theresa Barket. Naomi Martisius. Ahmad Thaher.

    This is an abstract from the "Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The multicomponent Epipaleolithic site of Kharaneh IV, located in the Azraq Basin of eastern Jordan, documents over 1,000 years of occupation by hunter-gatherer groups during the end of the Last Glacial Maximum. Multiple lines of geomorphological, faunal, and archaeobotanical evidence indicate that the environs around the...

  • Data-Mining Quartz and Quartzite: Should We Have Standard Protocols for Measuring and Reporting on Lithic Assemblages? (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Viola Schmid. Irini Sifogeorgaki. Gerrit Dusseldorp. Wei Chu.

    This is an abstract from the "Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Raw materials are the lowest common denominator of any debitage analysis. And yet, the fracture mechanics of eccentric raw materials are not always fully considered when performing inter-/intra-assemblage comparisons. The fracture mechanics as one constraint to be respected by the knappers greatly influence archaeological...

  • Debitage as Raw Material Resource: Understanding Olival Grande as a Paleolithic Place (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Paul Thacker.

    This is an abstract from the "Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Lithic debitage attributes are critical for interpreting the open-air Upper Paleolithic archaeological site of Olival Grande in central Portugal. Fabric analysis, intrasite spatial patterning, and weathered surface features of artifacts indicate manifold site burial mechanisms and significant postdepositional processes at...

  • More than Presence or Absence: Improving Ground Stone Tool Analyses to Address Tool Manufacture, Use, and Maintenance Questions (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kelley Martinez.

    This is an abstract from the "Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The presence of ground stone tools in an assemblage is often indicative of a long-term occupation or resource processing site. The technology represents diverse site activities, including subsistence, social, and symbolic aspects of Indigenous communities. Despite the importance of ground stone tools in the Pacific...

  • One Person’s Waste Is an Archaeologist’s Treasure: Using Techno-Typological Analysis of Debitage for Epipaleolithic Assemblages (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Theresa Barket. Lisa Maher. Danielle Macdonald. Felicia DePena.

    This is an abstract from the "Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Stone tools have long been used by archaeologists as markers of cultural affiliation in prehistoric cultures. The Epipaleolithic (EP) of Southwest Asia (approx. 23,000–11,500 yrs BP) is no different; here microlith types are regularly used as signifiers of geographically and chronologically bounded cultural groups, social...

  • Recognizing Debitage Diagnostic of Particular Reduction Technologies at Lithic Scatter Sites in the National Forests of Eastern and Central Oregon (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Meghan Johnson. Terry Ozbun.

    This is an abstract from the "Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Pacific Northwest Region of the United States Forest Service is updating guidance for implementation of a 1984 Programmatic Memorandum of Agreement (PMOA) for management of lithic scatter sites in eastern and central Oregon National Forests. The guidance update emphasizes meaningful consultation with Native American...

  • Recognizing Variability: Experiment-Based Insights into Debitage Analysis (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicholas Hlatky. John Fagan.

    This is an abstract from the "Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Debitage analysis can be conducted in a wide range of ways, and no standard approach has been broadly accepted. Over the years many attempts have been made to introduce varying classification systems for debitage analysis. This paper uses experimental archaeology to test different classification systems for accuracy, and...

  • Technological Changes in Patagonia: Debitage Analysis at Chorrillo Malo 2 Site (Upper Santa Cruz River Basin) (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nora Franco. Lucas Vetrisano.

    This is an abstract from the "Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent researches have shown the presence of technological and, in some cases, chronological discontinuities in the archaeological record of Central-South Patagonia from the Pleistocene–Holocene transition to the Late Holocene. Most of these changes have been recognized on lithic tools. In this presentation, we use...

  • Using Technologically Diagnostic Debitage to Better Determine the Integrity of an Archaeological Site (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeanne Binning. Jennifer Thatcher. Craig Skinner.

    This is an abstract from the "Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For a cultural resource to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, it must meet specific criteria. For significant archaeological sites, this usually means the resources can produce data that address important questions about the past (i.e., National Register Criterion D). The integrity of design is of...