Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Clovis Technological Organization, Understanding Technological Strategies through Cached Assemblages

在国家科学基金会的支持下，布鲁斯·赫凯尔和大卫·基尔比将调查克洛维狩猎采集者制作的文物。克洛维斯文化以其与猛犸象和巨型野牛等已灭绝的哺乳动物有关的大型凹槽抛射点而闻名，它广泛存在于北美，也许遍布整个大陆。克洛维遗址的可靠日期集中在公元前13500年到13000年之间。克洛维石器工具组合通常包括有凹槽的抛射（矛）尖，大型双面石和双面石芯，刀片和刀片芯，以及种类有限的用薄片和刀片制成的较小工具。骨和猛犸象牙工具不太常见，但在克洛维斯组合中同样广泛分布。在美国平原和落基山脉的许多地区，以及五大湖地区，都发现了克洛维斯的贮藏物，目前在美国各地的博物馆和私人收藏中。本研究的目的是提供克洛维石器技术组织的全面观点。我们对克洛维人技术的了解，大多来自于那些在使用寿命结束时被丢弃或遗弃在杀戮或营地的人工制品。目前克洛维工具箱的模型很大程度上是根据这些被丢弃的工具和废弃材料重建的。然而，窖藏的克洛维斯人手工艺品为了解克洛维斯人的技术提供了一个独特的窗口，这在其他克洛维斯人的组合中是找不到的，因为窖藏的手工艺品似乎在其用途耗尽之前的某个时间进入了考古记录。因此，它们可能更直接地代表了克洛维斯人携带的工作工具包的组成部分和形式。通过系统地将藏物与杀戮和营地的藏物连接起来，我们可以处理主要藏物生产、藏物使用和丢弃的传统问题，以及两者之间有关维护和存储策略的问题。已经发现并报告了20多个克洛维斯藏物；然而，这个名称掩盖了相当大的可变性。不太可能所有的缓存都有相同的目的。他们的功能可能包括，除其他外，人工制品和原材料的储存，以及仪式的放弃。推断单个藏物的一般功能是将它们与非藏物地点的废弃文物联系起来的必要步骤。因此，除了理解技术之外，本研究还将研究缓存作为一种行为，并评估它在克洛维斯技术组织和土地使用中可能发挥的作用。贮藏物是离散的集合，它提供了在某一点上的人工制品形式的快照，沿着连续的石器工具减少，在原材料获取之后，在丢弃之前。从这个角度来研究缓存的组合可能会填补有关克洛维斯石器技术的可用数据中的一个关键空白。在此过程中，我们将收集和提供由于出版物不足，地点分散以及在许多情况下私人所有权而不易访问的数据。尽管经过了大约60年的深入研究，关于克洛维斯人适应性的最普遍的方面仍然存在很大的不确定性。这项研究的结果将有助于深入了解这些人的技术、生存、流动性和意识形态，这些人可以说是新世界的第一批居民。更具体地说，这项研究旨在定义和评估物质贮藏在克洛维斯人适应过程中的作用，其结果可能适用于更好地理解所有狩猎采集群体。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Bruce Huckell and David Kilby will investigate caches of artifacts made by Clovis hunter-gatherers. The Clovis culture, best known for its large fluted projectile points found in association with extinct mammals such as mammoth and giant bison, occurs extensively in North America, perhaps over the entire continent. Reliable dates from Clovis sites cluster tightly between 13,500 and 13,000 calendar years B.P. Clovis lithic tool assemblages commonly include fluted projectile (spear) points, large stone bifaces and bifacial cores, blades and blade cores, and a limited variety of smaller tools made on flakes and blades. Bone and mammoth ivory tools are less common, but equally geographically widespread components of Clovis assemblages. Clovis caches have been found throughout many areas of the United States Plains and Rocky Mountains, as well as the Great Lakes area and currently reside in museums and private collections around the United States.The goal of this research is to provide a comprehensive view of the organization of Clovis lithic technology. Most of what is known about Clovis technology is derived from artifacts at the end of their useful lives that have been discarded or abandoned at kill or camp sites. Current models of Clovis toolkits are largely reconstructed from these discarded portions of tools and waste material. Caches of Clovis artifacts, however, provide a unique window into Clovis technology that is not found in other Clovis assemblages, because artifacts from caches appear to have entered the archaeological record at some point before their usefulness was depleted. Thus, they may more directly represent the components and form of the working toolkit carried by Clovis people. By systemically linking artifacts from caches to those from kill and camp sites, we can address traditional issues of primary artifact production, artifact use, and discard, as well as issues concerning maintenance and storage strategies in between. Over 20 Clovis caches have been identified and reported; however, this designation obscures considerable variability. It is unlikely that all caches served the same purpose. Their functions may have included, among other things, artifact and raw material storage, and ritual abandonment. Deducing the general function of individual caches is a necessary step in relating them to abandoned artifacts from non-cache sites. Thus, in addition to understanding technology, this research will investigate caching as a behavior, and evaluate possible roles that it played in Clovis technological organization and land use. Caches are discrete assemblages that provide a snapshot of artifact form at some point along a continuum of stone tool reduction subsequent to raw material acquisition and previous to discard. Approaching cached assemblages from this perspective can potentially fill a critical gap in the available data concerning Clovis lithic technology. In the process we will gather and make available data that are not easily accessed due to inadequate publication, dispersed locations, and, in many cases, private ownership. Despite roughly six decades of intensive investigation, there remains significant uncertainty concerning even the most general aspects of Clovis adaptations. The results of this research will provide insight into the technology, subsistence, mobility, and ideology of these people who were arguably the first inhabitants of the New World. More specifically, this research stands to define and evaluate the role of material caching in the adaptations of Clovis people, the results of which may be applicable to a better understanding of all hunter-gatherer groups.