Use-Wear Insight into the Chipped Stone Plant-Processing Toolkit in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Eagle Nest Canyon, Texas: Papers in Honor of Jack and Wilmuth Skiles" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The focus of this research was to analyze potential plant-processing chipped stone tools from several rockshelter and terrace sites in Eagle Nest Canyon within the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwest Texas, excavated by Texas State University from 2013 to 2017. The chipped stone tool assemblages’ evidence heavy plant polish on both informal and formal tools. Archaeological evidence and ethnographic accounts from the greater Southwest and Mexico show that sotol and agave lechuguilla were important plant resources, processed in intensive earth oven facilities and used as a major fiber resource. However, the Lower Pecos lacks a formalized identification and analysis of the chipped stone tool assemblages associated with these plant-processing activities. Is there a correlation between informal or formal tool type and tool function? Were tool types used for singular or multiple activities? I will present a use-wear analysis of these plant-polished tools, analyzing wear patterns from experimental and archaeological assemblages in order to provide insight into the prehistoric chipped stone plant-processing toolkit.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeology of Eagle Nest Canyon, Texas: Papers in Honor of Jack and Wilmuth Skiles   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38505.0