An Experimental Approach to Understanding Virgin Branch Puebloan Ground Stone Technology on the Shivwits Plateau

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ground stone use-wear analyses in the North American Southwest have been increasingly pursued through both collection studies and experimental approaches since at least the 1980s. Although analyses of prehistoric ground stone are common throughout all portions of the North American Southwest, experimental approaches to understanding ground stone technology in the greater region have been nearly-exclusively focused within more widely studied areas of the American Southwest (e.g., southern Arizona). In light of this regional gap, this study focuses on an experimental approach to better understanding use-wear patterns on ground stone within the Virgin Branch Puebloan region. Building upon past experimental studies involving ground stone technology, this study specifically focuses on understanding use-wear patterns on vesicular basalt from the Shivwits Plateau of northwestern Arizona. Through controlled time intervals on experimentally-constructed manos and metates, the results of this study present use-wear patterns on vesicular basalt manos and metates used to process a variety of organic materials. Ultimately, the conclusions of this study shed light on use-wear patterns on experimentally-constructed manos and metates for the purpose of more accurately interpreting the archaeological record, within and beyond the Virgin Branch Puebloan region, on a medium (i.e., vesicular basalt) previous experimental studies have not presented.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32293