Size Matters: A Case Study of Microdebitage in the American Southwest

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Historically, lithic studies have focused on formal tools, informal tools, and debitage recovered through traditional survey and excavation methods. The collection of flotation samples has resulted in heavy fraction materials that include microdebitage. Recent analyses of microdebitage in the American Southwest indicate that smaller debitage paints a different picture than its larger counterparts. Studying the life histories and materiality of microdebitage at Chacoan great house sites in southwestern Colorado provides evidence of lithic procurement patterns, lithic manufacture practices, and possible ritual deposition of lithic materials. My research at the Crosspatch Site and the Haynie Site indicate that there is value in studying lithic artifacts, including microdebitage found in heavy fraction. This research has implications for our understanding of lithic artifacts’ role in ancestral Pueblo society.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53071