Toward a Behavioral Ecology of Lithic Technology: Cases from Paleoindian ArchaeologyUniversity of Arizona Press, 01.11.2012 - 296 Seiten Modern humans and their hominid ancestors relied on chipped-stone technology for well over two million years and colonized more than 99 percent of the Earth's habitable landmass in doing so. Yet there currently exist only a handful of informal models derived from ethnographic observation, experiments, engineering, and "common sense" to explain variability in archaeological lithic assemblages. Because the fundamental processes of making, using, and discarding stone tools are, at root, exercises in problem solving, Todd Surovell asks what conditions favor certain technological solutions. Whether asking if a biface should be made thick or thin or if a flake should be saved or discarded, Surovell seeks answers that extend beyond a case-by-case analysis. One avenue for addressing these questions theoretically is formal mathematical modeling. Here Surovell constructs a series of models designed to link environmental variability to human decision making as it pertains to lithic technology. To test the models, Surovell uses data from the analysis of more than 40,000 artifacts from five Rocky Mountain and Northern Plains Folsom and Goshen complex archaeological sites dating to the Younger Dryas stadial (ca. 12,600-11,500 years BP). The primary result is the production of powerful new analytical tools useful to the interpretation of archaeological assemblages. Surovell's goal is to promote modeling and explore the general issues governing technological decisions. In this light, his models can be applied to any context in which stone tools are made and used. |
Inhalt
1 | |
2 Late Pleistocene Foragers of the Northern Plains and Rocky Mountains | 23 |
3 Occupation Span and Residential Mobility | 58 |
4 The Reoccupation Problem | 99 |
5 Stone Age SupplySide Economics | 110 |
Modeling the Design of Tools and Toolkits | 142 |
7 On the Optimal Production of Trash | 177 |
8 Mathematics Lithic Technology and Paleoindians | 213 |
Site Occupancy and Camp Area | 233 |
Notes | 237 |
References | 241 |
267 | |
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Toward a Behavioral Ecology of Lithic Technology: Cases from Paleoindian ... Todd A. Surovell Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2009 |
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
Agate Basin Amick archaeological argued artifact density assemblages average Bamforth Barger Gulch behavioral ecology bifaces bifacial core tool bifacial thinning flakes Binford bison campsites capita occupation span Carter/Kerr-McGee chert core reduction flakes correlation debitage debitage:nonlocal tools deficit defined difficult discard rate distance embedded procurement equation excavation fig find first five sites flake blanks flake tools flakes produced Folsom and Goshen Folsom component Folsom points Folsom sites foraging formal models Goshen Hanson Hofman hunter-gatherers interior platform Kornfeld KRMP Krmpotich Kuhn length lithic raw materials lithic technology local:nonlocal marginal value theorem maximize mean per capita Middle Park Mill Iron minimum usable mobile toolkits nonlocal raw materials occupation span index optimal Paleoindian predicts projectile points Puntutjarpa ratio raw material availability raw material source relative residential mobility retouch significant study sample Surovell surplus thickness tion tool blanks tool stone transport efficiency Upper Twin Mountain use-life use-lives utility variable Waguespack