Raw Material Use though the Archaic at the Aught-Six Site: Northwestern Colorado

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Here we examine the data from a cultural resource management excavation of the Aught-Six site in northwestern Colorado. We utilize an expedited version of Minimum Analytical Nodule Analysis (MANA) to address the changes in lithic raw material use and acquisition during a 2,000 year period of the Middle Archaic (6400–4450 cal B.P.). We assign individual artifacts to their respective analytical nodules during a standard lithic analysis focused on stone tool reduction trajectories. We combine the traditional lithic analysis with nodule analysis to build a complete picture of the raw material use throughout these periods. Practically, because the results of our expedient MANA analysis mirror that of more traditional MANA analyses we suggest that MANA can be done on a tight cultural resource management schedule, while being profitable. Additionally, we highlight chronometric and cultural changes in raw material acquisition and use from the settled, basin-house dwelling foragers of the Middle Settled Archaic before 6000 cal B.P., to more classically mobile foragers of the Middle Transitional Period after 5500 cal B.P.). We suggest that nodule analysis pairs well with traditional lithic analyses while highlighting overall prehistoric patterns of time and effort in raw material acquisition and hunter-gatherer mobility.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24808