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Biface Reduction and the Measurement of Dalton Curation: A Southeastern United States Case Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael J. Shott  and
Jesse A. M. Ballenger
Michael J. Shott
Affiliation:
Department of Classical Studies, Anthropology, and Archaeology, University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-1910 ([email protected])
Jesse A. M. Ballenger
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, TucsonAZ 85721 ([email protected])
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Abstract

Stone tools were reduced during use, with implications both for classification and curation rates. Ballenger's “expended utility” (EU) is a continuous reduction measure devised for Dalton bifaces, described by its mean but also its distribution among specimens. We validate EU as a reduction measure by reference to experimental and contextual controls. We compare EU between the “special context” Dalton assemblages Sloan and Hawkins in Arkansas and Ballenger's eastern Oklahoma “occupation context” ones. Then we fit EU distributions to mathematical functions to model the curation process. Results show that Oklahoma bifaces were better curated than Arkansas ones. Fitting distributions to the Gompertz-Makeham model efficiently describes distributions' shape and scale, which are as important to know as central tendency. Curation is not a categorical state but a continuous variable whose complex variation implicates complex causes.

Résumé

Résumé

Las herramientas líticas se reducían durante uso, teniendo esto consecuencias tanto para su clasificación como para determinar su tasa de conservación. En este ensayo se presenta una función matemática que permite confirmar una medida de reducción en bífaces de acuerdo a su distribución estadística, lo que permite modelar el proceso de conservación. El índice “utilidad explotada” (UE) de Ballenger es una medida de reducción derivada de los bifaces de tipo Dalton. Primero, confirmamos la eficacia del UE como medida de reducción por medio de controles experimentales y contextuales. Posteriormente, comparamos el UE entre el “contexto especial” de los conjuntos arqueológicos Sloan y Hawkins en Arkansas por un lado y los “contextos ocupacionales” del este de Oklahoma, estudiados por Ballenger, por el otro. El UE es una medida de reducción continua formulada en base alpromedio estadístico pero también de acuerdo con la distribución de los distintos especimenes de la muestra. Los análisis estadisticos y los ajustes de los modelos matemáticos demuestran que los bifaces procedentes de los contextos ocupacionales de Oklahoma presentan instrumentos mas conservados que los de Arkansas. Las distribuciones que se ajustan al modelo Gompertz-Makeham describen de manera más eficiente la forma y la escala de cada una de ellas, propiedades tan importantes de conocer como tendencia central. La curaduría de los instrumentos líticos no debe ser considerada como un estado definitivo sino como una variable continua, y su compleja variabilidad implica causas igualmente complejas.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 72 , Issue 1 , January 2007 , pp. 153 - 175
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2007

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