Lithic Technology of Manufacturing Stone Tools at Gravel Quarry Source Locations using Heat-Treatment

Summary

Prehistoric flintknappers world-wide typically used heat-treatment to improve the flakeability of lithic materials after initial reduction into smaller-sized packages. In contrast, along the eastern escarpment of the Southern High Plains of Northwest Texas, Late Archaic-age (4,500-2,000 rcyBP) flintknappers used heat-treatment to improve large quartzarenite clasts prior to initial clast reduction. Heat-treatment in this case was used as part of procurement at quarry gravel source locations. These quartzarenite clasts along with other knappable lithic material occurred within large secondary gravel deposits eroded from the nearby Southern High Plains basal section of the Ogallala Formation. The Potter member quartzarenite clasts were the largest sized clasts within these gravel deposits. A surface survey at Macy Locality 313 (41GR911), a Late Archaic hunter-gatherer campsite and Potter member quartzarenite quarry workshop, documented a lithic assemblage consisting of over 3,500 pieces of lithic tools and debitage, along with hearthstones. A technological study of this assemblage examined the of role heat-treatment in the initial reduction of Potter member quartzarenite clasts. Results indicated the process of heat-treatment improved the unmodified clasts for primary reduction and produced heat fractured debitage that also was used to fashion stone tools.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21553