Weaponry Standardization and the Potential for Sharing at the Agate Basin Site

Summary

This study explores the potential for sharing of weaponry elements during communal hunts, and the implications of sharing pertaining to the overall technological organization of Agate Basin hunting groups. K-means cluster analysis was utilized to determine whether hafted-area morphologies on Agate Basin points were standardized and displayed properties consistent with expectations we might have if sharing of weaponry elements incorporated into the preparation for a communal hunt. I argue two standardized haft-area sizes are present in the complete Agate Basin point assemblage, and weaponry sharing could have been a reliable organizational technique employed by Paleoindian hunters during seasonal aggregations, serving to secure critical resources during a time when failure during a hunt would prove catastrophic.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17059