Doctoral Dissertation Research: Characterizing Poverty Point lithic networks during the Archaic Period in the Lower Mississippi River Valley through analytical chert sourcing

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This doctoral dissertation project uses chert provenance data to assess the scale of trade, acquisition, and exchange between groups of people living in the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV) during the Archaic period. The narrative of the Poverty Point site, with its abundant, far-reaching, and diverse tool stone acquisition network, has been characterized as enigmatic without fully testing the longevity of this pattern from a temporal-cultural perspective. In the past, identifying the origin of lithic artifacts relied on the subjective and often inaccurate use of visual identification, but more analytical instrumentation removes much of the uncertainty. In comparing raw material diversity among southeastern Middle and Late Archaic sites, possible patterns of regional cultural continuity or intransigence through time concerning the exchange of cryptocrystalline exotics and the treatment of debitage will emerge. Utilizing curated assemblages from sites of cultural significance minimizes the detrimental effects of excavation on cultural resources but requires a systematic approach to sampling to ensure comparability among archaeological artifact assemblages.Examining Archaic chert resource networks is interdisciplinary relying on the fields of archaeology, geology, and mineralogy, as well as quantitative analyses, representing a significant undertaking into the extensive, yet under-researched, acquisition of chert resources by people at Poverty Point and related cultural sites. The research contributes to the wider public audience, engaging people with science and technology by producing information that will be shared with visitors to the Poverty Point World Heritage Site and made publicly available. This non-destructive research is a continuation of the first analytical chert provenance study of the Archaic period in the LMV, providing a template for other investigations of raw material procurement, mobility, and the organization of technology. The research will contribute to a greater public understanding of complex hunter-gatherers and provides data relevant to whether the people who built Poverty Point utilized the same chert resource networks as those who occupied the region during earlier cultural periods. This approach can be applied to archaeological investigations in the LMV Archaic period assemblages and wherever chert sources were employed in the past.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.