Haskett Biface-Point Production and Occupation of the Pacific Northwest and Northern Great Basin at the Pleistocene-Holocene Boundary

Summary

The Sentinel Gap site (Washington) lithic assemblage documents the sequential production of bifaces and projectile points stylistically associated with the Haskett type. Lithic workshop debris analysis identifies patterns in the reduction trajectory of large cores into bifaces and lanceolate projectile point/knives. An average of 10.2 ka B.P. for six radiocarbon dates place short term Sentinel Gap site occupation at the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary. Stylistic and technological evidence obtained from the biface-point sample, when combined with these dates, argue for a relationship to Agate Basin-Hell Gap complexes in the American Great Plains. In view of a probable east to west movement of the Haskett point into the region, the inclusion of Haskett in Western Stemmed and Windust Phase point complexes is problematic. This analysis indicates the need for a revised assessment of the temporal positions and cultural affiliations of early-dating biface-projectile point records defined for the Western Stemmed Tradition, Windust Phase, and Lind Coulee site.

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)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage