Hostname: page-component-5cf477f64f-zrtmk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-04T08:47:09.956Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Three Sides of a Biface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Robert L. Kelly
Robert L. Kelly*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Three different sorts of bifacial tools-by-products of the shaping process, cores, and long use-life tools-are used to consider the role mobility plays in producing variability in hunter-gatherer lithic technologies. The relations among tool roles, raw-material distribution, and mobility as well as the archaeological consequences of the different roles are key factors. An examination of temporal trends in the use of bifacial implements in the Carson Sink of western Nevada shows how the proposed perspective on lithic technology can help to elucidate change in mobility strategies. A shift from the use of bifaces as cores to an infrequent use of bifaces as tools suggests a shift from logistical to short-term residential use of the raw-material-poor Carson Sink; a later shift to the use of small, frequently unifacial, nonresharpenable points may indicate a shift to target-specific hunting strategies.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , October 1988 , pp. 717 - 734
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References cited

Allchin, B. 1966 The Stone-Tipped Arrow. Phoenix House, London.Google Scholar
Balfour, H. R. 1951 A Native Tool Kit from the Kimberly District, Western Australia. Mankind 4 : 273–274.Google Scholar
Bamforth, D. 1985 The Technological Organization of Paleo-Indian Small-Group Bison Hunting on the Llano Estacado. Plains Anthropologist 30 : 243–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bamforth, D. 1986 Technological Efficiency and Tool Curation. American Antiquity 51 : 38–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bettinger, R. L., and Baumhoff, M. A. 1982 The Numic Spread : Great Basin Cultures in Competition. American Antiquity 47 : 485–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1977 Forty-Seven Trips. In Stone Tools as Cultural Markers, edited by Wright, R. V. S., pp. 24-36. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, Australia.Google Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1979 Organization and Formation Processes : Looking at Curated Technologies. Journal of Anthropological Research 35 : 255–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1980 Willow Smoke and Dogs’ Tails : Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems and Archaeological Site Formation. American Antiquity 45 : 4–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1986 An Alyawara Day : Making Men's Knives and Beyond. American Antiquity 51 : 547–562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bleed, P. 1986 The Optimal Design of Hunting Weapons : Maintainability or Reliability. American Antiquity 51 : 737–747.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elston, R. 1982 Good Times, Hard Times : Prehistoric Culture Change in the Western Great Basin. In Man and Environment in the Great Basin, edited by Madsen, D. B. and Connell, J. F. O., pp. 186-206. SAA Papers No. 2. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D. C.Google Scholar
Flenniken, J. J. 1981 Replicative Systems Analysis : A Model Applied to the Vein Quartz Artifacts from the Hoko River Site. Reports of Investigations No. 59. Laboratory of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman.Google Scholar
Fowler, D. D., and Matley, J. F. 1979 Material Culture of the Numa : The John Wesley Powell Collection, 1867-1880. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology 26. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.Google Scholar
Goodyear, A. C. 1979 A Hypothesis for the Use of Cryptocrystalline Raw Materials Among Paleo-Indian Groups of North America. Research Manuscript Series No. 156. University of South Carolina, Columbia.Google Scholar
Gould, R. A. 1968 Chipping Stones in the Outback. Natural History 77: 42-49.Google Scholar
Gould, R. A. 1980 Living Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Gould, R. A., Koster, D. A., and Sontz, A. H. L. 1971 The Lithic Assemblage of the Western Desert Aborigines of Australia. American Antiquity 36 : 149–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, R. A., and Saggers, S. 1985 Lithic Procurement in Central Australia : A Closer Look at Binford's Idea of Embeddedness in Archaeology. American Antiquity 50 : 117–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heizer, R. F., and Krieger, A. D. 1956 The Archaeology of Humboldt Cave, Churchill County, Nevada. Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 47. University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Heizer, R. F., and Napton, L. K. 1970 Archaeology and the Prehistoric Great Basin Lacustrine Subsistence Regime as Seen from Lovelock Cave, Nevada. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility No. 10, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Holen, S. R. 1983 Lower Loup Procurement Strategy at the Gray Site, 25Cxl. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Home, G., and Aiston, G. 1924 Savage Life in Central Australia. Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Keeley, L. H. 1980 Experimental Determination of Stone Tool Uses : A Microwear Analysis. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Keeley, L. H. 1982 Hafting and Retooling : Effects on the Archaeological Record. American Antiquity 47 : 798–809.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, R. L. 1983a An Examination of Amateur Collections from the Carson Sink, Nevada. Technical Report No. 10. Bureau of Land Management, Carson City, Nevada.Google Scholar
Kelly, R. L. 1983b Hunter-Gatherer Mobility Strategies. Journal of Anthropological Research 39 : 277–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, R. L. 1985 Hunter-Gatherer Mobility and Sedentism : A Great Basin Study. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Kelly, R. L. 1988 Hunter-Gatherer Land Use and Regional Geomorphology : Implications for Archaeological Survey. American Archeology, in press.Google Scholar
Leach, H. M. 1984 Jigsaw : Reconstructive Lithic Technology. In Prehistoric Quarries and Lithic Procurement, edited by Ericson, J. E. and Purdy, B. A., pp. 107-118. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loeb, E. M. 1926 Porno Folkways. Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 19. University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Loud, L. L., and Harrington, M. R. 1929 Lovelock Cave. Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 25. University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Magne, M. P. R. 1983 Lithics and Livelihood : Stone Tool Technologies of Central and Southern Interior British Columbia. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.Google Scholar
Murdoch, J. 1892 Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition. In Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 19-441. Washington, D. C.Google Scholar
O. Connell, J. F. 1977 Aspects of Variation in Central Australian Lithic Assemblages. In Stone Tools as Cultural Markers, edited by Wright, R. V. S., pp. 269-281. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, Australia.Google Scholar
Odell, G. H. 1981 The Morphological Express at Function Junction : Searching for Meaning in Lithic Tool Types. Journal of Anthropological Research 37 : 319–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oswalt, W. H. 1973 Habitat and Technology. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York.Google Scholar
Pendleton, L. S. A. 1985 Material Culture : Artifacts of Stone. In The Archaeology of Hidden Cave, Nevada, edited by Thomas, D. H., pp. 183-218. Anthropological Papers 61. The American Museum of Natural History, New York.Google Scholar
Roth, H. L. 1890 The Aborigines of Tasmania. Kegan, Paul, Trench, and Trubner, London.Google Scholar
Simms, S. 1984 Aboriginal Great Basin Foraging Strategies : An Evolutionary Analysis. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Spencer, B., and Gillen, F. J. 1927 The Arunta. Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Thomas, D. H. 1978 Arrowheads and Atlatl Darts : How the Arrows Got the Shaft. American Antiquity 43 : 461–472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, D. H. 1981 How to Classify the Projectile Points from Monitor Valley, Nevada. Journal of California and Great Basin Archaeology 3 : 7–43.Google Scholar
Thomas, D. H. 1982 The 1981 Aha Toquima Village Project : A Preliminary Report. Technical Report Series No. 27. Desert Research Institute Social Sciences Center, Reno.Google Scholar
Thomas, D. H. 1983 The Archaeology of Monitor Valley : 2. Gatecliff Shelter. Anthropological Papers 59. The American Museum of Natural History, New York.Google Scholar
Thomas, D. H. 1985a Contemporary Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology in America. In American Archaeology Past and Present, edited by Meltzer, D. J., Fowler, D. D., and Sabloff, J. A., pp. 237-276. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C.Google Scholar
Thomas, D. H. 1985b The Archaeology of Hidden Cave, Nevada. Anthropological Papers 61. The American Museum of Natural History, New York.Google Scholar
Tindale, N. B. 1965 Stone Implement Making Among the Nakako, Ngadadjara and Pitjandjara of the Great Western Desert. Records of the South Australian Museum 15(1) : 131–164.Google Scholar
Tindale, N. B. 1985 Australian Aboriginal Technique of Pressure-Flaking Stone Implements : Some Personal Observations. In Stone Tool Analysis : Essays in Honor of Don E. Crabtree, edited by Plew, M. G., Woods, J. C., and Pavesic, M. G., pp. 1-34. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Torrence, R. 1983 Time Budgeting and Hunter-Gatherer Technology. In Hunter-Gatherer Economy in Prehistory, edited by Bailey, G., pp. 11-22. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
White, J. P., and Connell, J. F. O. 1982 The Archaeology of Australia, New Guinea, and Sahul. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Wiant, M. D., and Hassan, H. 1985 The Role of Lithic Resource Availability and Accessibility in the Organization of Lithic Technology. In Lithic Resource Procurement : Proceedings from the Second Conference on Prehistoric Chert Exploitation, edited by Vehik, S. C., pp. 101-114. Occasional Publications 4. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale. Google Scholar