Dissertation Research: Analysis of Epipaleolithic Lithic Materials

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9406034 Clark Under the direction of Dr. Geoffrey Clark, Mr. Michael Neeley will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will examine archaeological collections at several U.S. universities and analyze the collected data. His focus is on the Epipaleolithic period (from ca. 18,000 to 5,000 years ago) in the Near East and he will study stone tools from a number of sites in this region. He will conduct a number of technological analyses, note differences among sites and attempt to relate these to a series of variables such as the availability of raw material, the nature of the local environment and prehistoric peoples' use of the environment. Because they are so common and well preserved, stone tools provide an important source of archaeological data. For over a century prehistorians have examined such materials to gain insight into the culture of the makers. Traditionally, variation in assemblages between sites has been ascribed to factors such as "ethnicity" or function. In recent years archaeologists have recognized that other factors such as mobility strategy can affect assemblage variation. This realization is resulting in the development of analytic approaches which may provide new insight into prehistoric life. Mr. Neeley's work follows in, and expands on this tradition. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will assist in the development of new analytic techniques of potentially wide applicability and will assist in the training of a promising young scientist. ***