Fluted-point technology and the nature of its transmission in the Western Canadian Ice-free Corridor

Summary

Recent analyses suggest that Paleoindian stage technology in the archaeological record of the Western Canadian Ice-free Corridor—fluted projectile points—can provide valuable evidence of the dispersal of Clovis and descendant groups northward as early Americans spread throughout the New World. This paper discusses recent geometric morphometric and technological evidence for fluted-point variation in the Ice-free Corridor, which possibly represents a variety of typological specimens spanning over 2,000 years of fluted-point use. Major factors of variability reflect the presence of Clovis-point morphology in the earliest deposits of the central Corridor, as well as specimens from the Great Lakes region and Folsom at other sites. Trends in the frequencies of technological characteristics suggest directional changes that may explain the nature of the transmission of fluting information into and throughout the Corridor and its adaptive context in late-glacial Arctic and Subarctic ecosystems. Conclusions address whether patterns in such technological trends between points from Alaska and northern Yukon, Canada, the Ice-free Corridor, and Clovis suggest that cultural transmission occurred between groups that met in the Ice-free Corridor during the terminal Pleistocene.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Alternative Perspectives on the Peopling of the New World: A Symposium in Honor of Ruth Gruhn, the "First Lady" of First Americans Studies   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16649