From Formal to Efficient: Variation in Projectile Point Manufacture and Morphology from the Late Woodland to Fort Ancient Period in the Middle Ohio River Valley

Summary

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

Cultural groups in the Middle Ohio River Valley experienced significant changes in mobility, subsistence, and social organization from the Late Woodland (AD 700 – 1000) to the Early Fort Ancient period (AD 1000 – 1300). Technology changed as well, particularly the production and morphology of projectile points. It is possible that constraints related to changes in subsistence and mobility prompted a shift in raw material use and manufacture, from free-hand reduction to bipolar reduction. Shifts the learning processes that facilitated cultural transmission appear to have occurred accompanying changes in settlement and mobility, from a guided variation learning strategy to one of indirect bias. The research presented investigates the variability in lithic assemblages between the Late Woodland and Early Fort Ancient periods using two sites from the Middle Ohio River Valley, Clark (33WA124), a late Late Woodland site, and Guard (12D29), an Early Fort Ancient site. The analytical methods used identified the differential presence of high quality raw materials and bipolar reduction and variability in projectile point morphology between the late Woodland and Fort Ancient periods. This study displays how social and cultural changes can be interpreted through technology and reinterprets the trajectory of technological innovation; newer is not always better.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25241