The Curation Continuum: An Example from the Henry Smith Site in Northeastern Montana

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Forager mobility is often linked to the organization of technology through the continuum of curated and expedient technologies. Curated technologies are expected to be associated with higher levels of mobility reflecting transport costs and longer use histories, in response to reduced access to raw materials. In contrast, expedient technologies are more closely associated with reduced mobility, lower artifact transport costs, shorter artifact use histories, and greater access to raw materials. With the curated-expedient dichotomy in mind, we examine the lithic materials from the Henry Smith site (24PH794), a late pre-contact bison kill in northeastern Montana. Our poster focuses on the use of cortex ratios to assess technological organization, the role of core and chopper classification in determining these ratios, and the core reduction strategy of local quartzite cobbles that results in large quantities of cortical flakes. Preliminary results indicate low cortex ratios which suggest an organizational practice of off-site lithic transport. Additionally, we explore how these values can be influenced by the variable classification of cores and choppers.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39490.0