¿Por Qué (No) Los Dos?: Investigating Simultaneous Blade and Flake Industries at the Ortiz Site, Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Recent analysis of the lithic assemblage from the Ortiz site, an early (2340 cal BC–cal AD 310) habitation site in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, has revealed the persistent parallel manufacture of blade and expedient flake technologies, with an average of 16.1% of the flaked stone assemblage consisting of blades. While other early Puerto Rican lithic assemblages can contain a small percentage of formal blades, little research has been conducted to determine why these distinct technological traditions were maintained simultaneously, and what work has been done often followed a culture-historical approach. Possible factors that could have informed ancient knappers’ decision to maintain, in parallel, two distinct lithic traditions, could have included the proximity, abundance, reliability, and quality of source material (chert), as well as the types of activities for which each technology were intended. Presented here are the results of morphological and microwear analyses of the Ortiz lithic assemblage, which sought to determine whether the presence of these distinct flake and blade industries can be explained by factors pertaining to raw materials, distinct use, or some other cultural factor. Ultimately, this work provides heretofore unavailable insights into technological processes and behaviors of some of the first peoples of Puerto Rico.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36568.0