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，布鲁斯哈克尔和大卫基尔比将调查克洛维斯狩猎采集者制作的文物的缓存。 克洛维斯文化以其与灭绝的哺乳动物如猛犸和巨型野牛有关的大型凹槽抛射物而闻名，广泛分布于北美，也许遍及整个大陆。 来自克洛维斯遗址的可靠数据集中在公元前13，500至13，000年之间。克洛维斯石器工具组合通常包括有凹槽的射弹（矛）尖、大型石双面和双面芯、刀片和刀片芯，以及有限的由薄片和刀片制成的小型工具。 骨制和猛犸象牙制的工具不太常见，但在地理上同样分布广泛，是克洛维斯组合的组成部分。 克洛维斯在美国平原和落基山脉的许多地区以及五大湖地区都有发现，目前这些物品被美国各地的博物馆和私人收藏。本研究的目标是提供一个关于克洛维斯石器技术组织的全面视图。 关于克洛维斯技术的大部分知识都来自于在其使用寿命结束时被丢弃或遗弃在杀戮或营地的人工制品。 目前的克洛维斯工具箱模型主要是从这些废弃的工具和废料中重建的。 然而，克洛维斯文物的缓存提供了一个了解克洛维斯技术的独特窗口，这是在其他克洛维斯组合中找不到的，因为缓存中的文物似乎在它们的用处耗尽之前的某个时候就已经进入了考古记录。 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。 通过系统地将来自缓存的文物与来自杀戮和营地的文物联系起来，我们可以解决主要文物生产，文物使用和丢弃的传统问题，以及有关维护和存储策略的问题。 已查明并报告了20多个克洛维斯藏匿处;然而，这一名称掩盖了相当大的差异。 不可能所有的缓存都用于相同的目的。 它们的功能可能包括，除其他外，人工制品和原材料储存，以及仪式放弃。推导出个别缓存的一般功能是将它们与非缓存站点的废弃文物联系起来的必要步骤。 因此，除了了解技术，本研究将调查缓存作为一种行为，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。缓存是离散的集合体，其在原材料获取之后和丢弃之前沿着石器减少的连续体的某个点提供伪影形式的快照。 从这个角度来看，接近缓存组合可能会填补一个关键的空白，在有关克洛维斯石器技术的可用数据。 在此过程中，我们将收集和提供由于出版不足、地点分散以及在许多情况下私人所有而不易获得的数据。 尽管进行了大约60年的深入研究，但即使是关于克洛维斯适应性的最一般方面，也仍然存在重大的不确定性。 这项研究的结果将提供深入了解这些人的技术，生存，流动性和意识形态，他们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缓存在克洛维斯人适应中的作用，其结果可能适用于更好地了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.