Identifying Ground Stone Production at Bolsa Chica through Hammerstone Analysis

Summary

Debris attributed to the manufacture of groundstone implements are not always identified or collected. This can make groundstone production difficult to quantify through debitage analysis. Therefore, the identification of groundstone production often rests on the analysis of hammerstones. Recently Scientific Resource Surveys, Inc., conducted an intensive technological analysis on the lithic assemblage from a well-known Millingstone Horizon site, located on the Bolsa Chica mesa, in Orange County, California. During the analysis, SRSinc identified hundreds of beveled shaped hammerstones thought to have been instrumental in the manufacture and maintenance of utilitarian and ceremonial groundstone artifacts. Previous studies have shown that beveled hammerstones are used for the initial shaping, modification and rejuvenation of ground stone implements. Similar methods of manufacture would also be attributed to ambiguous artifacts like cogged stones and charmstones. This poster discusses the manufacture of utilitarian and ceremonial ground stone artifacts at Bolsa Chica and how the analysis of hammerstones has aided in the interpretation of this industry.

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