Raw Material Quality and Spatial Patterning at Shawnee-Minisink

Summary

The Shawnee-Minisink Site is one of the most spatially intact Paleoindian sites in eastern North America. Located in the Upper Delaware Valley of Pennsylvania, the site includes an occupation area spanning 60 x 95m which dates to circa 12,900 CalBP. Over 18,000 point-provenienced lithics have been excavated from a 360 meter-squared area. The lithic artifacts consist primarily of the local black flint as well as of various exotic cherts. Because it is well dated, spatially intact, and likely represents a single occupation, the Shawnee-Minisink site is an optimal candidate for spatial analysis research. As part of an ongoing project examining the Paleoindian level of Shawnee-Minisink site, this work investigates the spatial patterning of lithic raw materials which may relate to the organization of activity areas, variation in tool manufacturing techniques, and group composition.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21517