Experimental Replication of Stone Tools used For Agave and Similar Plant Harvesting and Processing

Summary

There are numerous burned rock middens in the region around Fort Bliss. These sites are usually assumed to be agave processing locations, although it is possible that other types of plants, such as yucca, were being processed. Some of these sites have small quantities of artifacts, while others have fairly large numbers of artifacts, particularly modified flakes. We believe that this difference may relate to processing the plants for fiber, rather than food. We intend to replicate stone tools from these sites and use these tools to harvest and process agave and yucca for use as food and for fiber. We will then compare the wear patterns on the tools to determine if there are patterns associated with each type of processing. As part of the experiment we will also conduct efficiency studies that can be used to compare to other experimental work of a similar nature.

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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