Exploring Potential Connections between Pleistocene Bifacial Projectile Designs in Japan and North America: A First View

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Global “Impact” of Projectile Technologies: Updating Methods and Regional Overviews of the Invention and Transmission of the Spear-Thrower and the Bow and Arrow" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

While paleogenetic studies indicate that the majority of the genomic heredity of indigenous peoples of the Americas can be traced to late Pleistocene human populations in far eastern Asia, we do not yet understand whether a cultural connection exists between this region and the Americas. To study this issue, we began a project to characterize and compare key cultural markers found in the design and modes of manufacture in lithic technology presented in the artifacts from late Pleistocene sites of Japan and North America. Here, we present a first view of our work on studying bifacial lithic projectile point technology from the Shirataki Valley region of Hokkaido. We discuss the use of digital 3D scanning methods and geometric morphometric approaches to elucidate design and manufacturing elements encoded in bifacial projectile points and explore next steps for research.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• The Global “Impact” of Projectile Technologies: Updating Methods and Regional Overviews of the Invention and Transmission of the Spear-Thrower and the Bow and Arrow

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39200.0