Anzick Site Lithics: A Study of Concave Margin Scrapers as an Integral Part of the Clovis Tool Kit

Summary

An assemblage of lithic and osseous artifacts, associated with the fragmentary remains of a child was discovered in Montana at the Anzick Site (24PA506). The remains and assemblage, all covered with red ochre, are thought to represent the only known burial from the Clovis Culture. Found on several lithic artifacts in the assemblage are unique flaking patterns which form "margin scrapers", possibly utilized as an integral part of an osseous tool crafting technology overlooked in western Clovis toolkits. These flaking patterns resemble those found on lithic artifacts from other known western Clovis sites. In this study, I compared the margin scrapers directly with ovoid bone rods, also from the Anzick assemblage. I propose that these margin-scrapers were drawn along the edges of bone shafts to create a predicted and uniform ovoid configuration required by design with variable margin scraper sizes shaping the "shoulders" and the "body" of the linear shafts. This consistency in shaft manufacture ability would allow for efficient replication of a specific and desired bone shaft tool size and shape as is found in multiple examples within the Anzick assemblage.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Solving Archaeological Research Problems in Rocky Mountain and Plains Prehistory

Keywords