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造的文物的缓存。克洛维斯文化以其巨大的凹槽投射点而闻名，与猛犸象和巨型野牛等已灭绝的哺乳动物有关，广泛存在于北美，可能遍及整个大陆。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。克洛维斯石器组合通常包括凹槽投射(矛)点、大型石头双面和双面芯、刀片和刀片芯，以及有限种类的由薄片和刀片制成的较小工具。骨骼和猛犸象象牙工具不太常见，但在地理上同样广泛地构成克洛维斯组合的组成部分。克洛维斯的藏品在美国平原和落基山脉的许多地区以及五大湖区都有发现，目前存放在美国各地的博物馆和私人收藏品中。这项研究的目标是提供克洛维斯石块技术组织的全面视角。关于Clovis技术的大部分已知信息都来自于使用寿命即将结束时被丢弃或遗弃在杀戮或营地的文物。目前的Clovis工具包模型很大程度上是从这些废弃的工具和废料中重建出来的。然而，Clovis文物的缓存为了解Clovis技术提供了一个独特的窗口，这是在其他Clovis组合中找不到的，因为来自缓存的文物似乎在其用途耗尽之前的某个时候进入了考古记录。因此，它们可能更直接地表示Clovis人携带的工作工具包的组件和形式。通过系统地将藏物与杀戮和营地地点的文物联系起来，我们可以解决主要文物生产、文物使用和丢弃等传统问题，以及与维护和存储策略有关的问题。已经识别和报告了20多个Clovis缓存；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具有相同的目的。它们的功能可能包括，除其他外，文物和原材料的储存，以及仪式上的遗弃。推断单个缓存的一般功能是将它们与来自非缓存站点的废弃构件相关联的必要步骤。因此，除了了解技术之外，这项研究还将调查缓存作为一种行为，并评估它在Clovis技术组织和土地使用中可能扮演的角色。缓存是离散的组合，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人工制品形式的快照。从这个角度来研究缓存的集合体可能会填补有关Clovis碎石技术的现有数据中的一个关键空白。在这一过程中，我们将收集和提供由于发布不充分、分散的地点，以及在许多情况下私人所有而不易访问的数据。尽管进行了大约60年的密集研究，但即使是在克洛维斯适应的最一般方面，仍存在重大不确定性。这项研究的结果将提供对这些人的技术、生存、流动性和意识形态的洞察，这些人可以说是新大陆的第一批居民。更具体地说，这项研究旨在定义和评估材料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.