Using Technologically Diagnostic Debitage to Better Determine the Integrity of an Archaeological Site

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

For a cultural resource to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, it must meet specific criteria. For significant archaeological sites, this usually means the resources can produce data that address important questions about the past (i.e., National Register Criterion D). The integrity of design is of vital importance when considering eligibility via Criterion D. In this context, design refers to the relationships or patterning of artifacts, ecofacts, and features. Frequency, bioturbation, cultural transformations, and other postdepositional forces are assumed to have destroyed the integrity of an archaeological site, resulting in the site being determined ineligible to the National Register of Historic Places via Criterion D. This paper reports on the use of technologically diagnostic debitage, in conjunction with obsidian hydration dating, to better determine the integrity of an archaeological site and its potential to answer important questions about the past.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37385.0