Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:55:30.087Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Investigating Correlates of Sedentism and Domestication in Prehistoric North America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

George H. Odell*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74104

Abstract

Throughout the Holocene occupation of the North American continent, residential mobility declined while plant domestication increased. Direct results of these processes have been investigated through structural, paleobotanical and ceramic analyses, but have rarely been detected in assemblages of stone tools. This study involves intensive technological and use-wear analyses of lithic materials from five excavated sites in the Illinois Valley that span 7,500 years of the Holocene. Results of functional trends analyzed through time indicate that most of the specific activities and worked materials in which the tools were engaged are stochastic in nature. Nevertheless, certain trends, including increases in the proportion of chopping/percussion damage and the presence of hoeing wear in later components, are consistent with changes in mobility and plant manipulation. The presence of other coeval processes is indicated by increases in wear from drilling and projectile use. In addition, support is found for the contention that highly mobile foragers of the Early Holocene needed standardized, multi-functional implements such as bifaces. The decline in bifacial technologies throughout the Holocene provides a measure of increasing sedentism, as considerations of versatility and portability were eschewed in favor of more expedient technologies.

Résumé

Résumé

Durante toda la ocupación holocénica del continente de Norte América hubo una disminución de movilidad residencial mientras que aumentó el uso de plantas domesticas. Resultados directos de estos procesos han sido investigados por medio de análisis estructural, paleobotdnico y cerámico, pero dichos resultados pocas veces han sido percibidos en conjuntos de herramientas de piedra. El presente estudio comprende un análisis intensivo de la tecnología y de huellas de uso de materiales litícos provenientes de cinco sitios ubicados en el valle del Río Illinois, sitios que entre ellos representan más de 7500 años del Holoceno. Andlisis functional de los implementos litícos durante este tiempo ha definido pocos patrones evidentes. Sin embargo, evidencia que incluye un incremento en elporcentaje de desgaste que resulta de la percusión, más lapresenciade desgaste en componentes tardíos que puede ser atribuido a la actividad de azadonar, estan de acuerdo con cambios en movilidad y en la manipulación de plantas. La presencia de otros procesos coetáneos se indica por el aumento de desgaste atribuible al taladramiento y uso de proyectiles. Ademds, se propone que entre los forrajeros móviles del Holoceno temprano existía la necesidad de producir implementos estandarizados y multifuncionales, tales como bifaces. La disminuciín de la tecnologia bifacial durante el Holoceno provee una medida del sedentismo creciente, cuando la produccion de implementos adaptables y portdtiles fue abandonado en favor de tecnologías más expedientes.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1998

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

Abbott, A. L., Leonard, R. D., and Jones, G. T. 1996 Explaining the Change from Biface to Flake Technology: A Selectionist Application. In Darwinian Archaeologies, edited by Maschner, H., pp. 3342. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adair, M. J. 1988 Prehistoric Agriculture in the Central Plains. Publications in Anthropology 16. University of Kansas, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Alvey, R. L. 1993 The Seiwell Site: A Terminal Archaic Site in the Illinois Uplands. Illinois Archaeology 5: 158166.Google Scholar
Asch, D. L., and Asch, N. B. 1985 Prehistoric Plant Cultivation in West-Central Illinois. In Prehistoric Food Production in North America, edited by Ford, R., pp. 149203. Anthropological Papers No. 75. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Asch, N. B., Ford, R. I., and Asch, D. L. 1972 Paleoethnobotany of the Koster Site: The Archaic Horizons. Reports of Investigations No. 24. Illinois State Museum, Springfield.Google Scholar
Bareis, C. J., and Porter, J. W. (editors) 1984 American Bottom Archaeology. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.Google Scholar
Bernabo, J. C, and Webb, T. III 1977 Changing Patterns in the Holocene Pollen Record of Northeastern North America: A Mapped Summary. Quaternary Research 8: 6496.Google Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1980 Willow Smoke and Dogs’ Tails: Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems and Archaeological Site Formation. American Antiquity 45: 420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blalock, H. M., Jr. 1972 Social Statistics. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Bleed, P. 1986 The Optimal Design of Hunting Weapons: Maintainability or Reliability. American Antiquity 51: 737747.Google Scholar
Braun, D. P. 1987 Coevolution of Sedentism, Pottery Technology, and Horticulture in the Central Midwest, 200 B.C.-A.D. 600. In Emergent Horticultural Economies of the Eastern Woodlands, edited by Keegan, W., pp. 153181. Occasional Paper No. 7. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Braun, D. P. 1985 Long-Term Trends to Sedentism and the Emergence of Complexity in the American Midwest. In Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers: The Emergence of Cultural Complexity, edited by T.D. Price and J. Brown, pp. 201231. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Brown, J. A., and Vierra, R. K. 1983 What Happened in the Middle Archaic? Introduction to an Ecological Approach to Koster Site Archaeology. In Archaic Hunters and Gatherers in the American Midwest, edited by Phillips, J. and Brown, J., p. 165-195. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Broyles, B. J. 1971 Second Preliminary Report: The St. Albans Site, Kanawha County, West Virginia. Archaeological Investigation No. 3. West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey Report.Google Scholar
Carlson, D. L. 1979 Hunter-Gatherer Mobility Strategies: An Example from the Koster Site in the Lower Illinois Valley. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston.Google Scholar
Carr, P. J. (editor) 1994 The Organization of North American Prehistoric Chipped Stone Tool Technologies. International Monographs in Prehistory, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Charles, D. K., Leigh, S. R., and Buikstra, J. E. (editors) 1988 The Archaic and Woodland Cemeteries at the Elizabeth Site in the Lower Illinois Valley. Research Series, vol. 7. Center for American Archeology, Kampsville, Illinois.Google Scholar
Coe, M. D. 1962 Mexico. Frederick A. Praeger, New York.Google Scholar
Conner, M. D. (editor) 1985 The Hill Creek Homestead and the Late Mississippian Settlement of the Lower Illinois Valley. Research Series, vol. 1. Center for American Archeology, Kampsville, Illinois.Google Scholar
Cowan, F. L. 1994 Prehistoric Mobility Strategies in Western New York: a Small Sites Perspective. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Buffalo.Google Scholar
Deller, D. B. 1989 Interpretation of Chert Type Variation in Paleoindian Industries, Southwestern Ontario. In Eastern Paleoindian Lithic Resource Use, edited by Ellis, C. and Lothrop, J., pp. 191220. Westview Press, Boulder.Google Scholar
Dickson, D. R. 1991 The Albertson Site: A Deeply and Clearly Stratified Ozark Bluff Shelter. Research Series No. 41. Arkansas Archaeological Survey.Google Scholar
Dunnell, R. C. 1978 Style and Function: A Fundamental Dichotomy. American Antiquity 43: 192202.Google Scholar
Ellis, C. J. 1989 The Explanation of Northeastern Lithic Procurement Patterns. In Eastern Paleoindian Lithic Resource Use, edited by Ellis, C. and Lothrop, J., pp. 139164. Westview Press, Boulder.Google Scholar
Fagan, B. M. 1984 The Aztecs. W. H. Freeman & Co., New York.Google Scholar
Faulkner, C. H., and McCollough, C. R. 1973 Introductory Report of the Normandy Reservoir Salvage Project: Environmental Setting, Typology, and Survey. Normandy Archaeological Project, vol. 1; Report of Investigations No. 11, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.Google Scholar
Ford, R. I. 1977 Evolutionary Ecology and the Evolution of Human Ecosystems: A Case Study from the Midwestern U.S.A. In Explanation of Prehistoric Change, edited by Hill, J., pp. 153184. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Fowler, M. L. 1991 Mound 72 and Early Mississippian at Cahokia. In New Perspectives on Cahokia: Views from the Periphery, edited by Stoltman, J., pp. 128. Prehistory Press, Madison.Google Scholar
Fritz, G. J. 1993 Early and Middle Woodland Period Paleoethnobotany. In Foraging and Farming in the Eastern Woodlands, edited by CM. Scarry, pp. 3956. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Griffin, J. B. (editor) 1952 Archeology of Eastern United States. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Gunnerson, J. H., and Gunnerson, D. A. 1988 Ethnohistory of the High Plains. Bureau of Land Management, Denver.Google Scholar
Hofman, J. L. 1991 Folsom Land Use: Projectile Point Variability as a Key to Mobility. In Raw Material Economies among Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers, edited by A. Montet- White and S. Holen, pp. 335355. Publications in Anthropology No. 19. University of Kansas, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Hofman, J. L. 1989 Hernando de Soto's Expedition through the Southern United States. In First Encounters, edited by Milanich, J. and Milbrath, S., pp. 7798. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Keeley, L. H. 1980 Experimental Determination of Stone Tool Uses: A Microwear Analysis. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Kelly, R. L. 1988 The Three Sides of a Biface. American Antiquity 53: 717734.Google Scholar
Kelly, R. L. 1992 Mobility/Sedentism: Concepts, Archaeological Measures, and Effects. Annual Review of Anthropology 21: 4366.Google Scholar
Kelly, R. L., and Todd, L. C. 1988 Coming into the Country: Early Paleoindian Hunting and Mobility. American Antiquity 53: 231244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, S. L. 1991 “Unpacking” Reduction: Lithic Raw Material Economy in the Mousterian of West-Central Italy. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 10: 76106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, S. L. 1994 A Formal Approach to the Design and Assembly of Mobile Toolkits. American Antiquity 59: 426442.Google Scholar
Lepper, B. T. 1989 Lithic Resource Procurement and Early Paleoindian Land Use Patterns in the Appalachian Plateau of Ohio. In Eastern Paleoindian Lithic Resource Use, edited by Ellis, C. and Lothrop, J., pp. 239257. Westview Press, Boulder.Google Scholar
Lewenstein, S. M. 1987 Stone Tool Use at Cerros. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Lurie, R. 1989 Lithic Technology and Mobility Strategies: the Koster Site Middle Archaic. In Time, Energy and Stone Tools, edited by Torrence, R., pp. 4656. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Montet-White, A. 1968 The Lithic Industries of the Illinois Valley in the Early and Middle Woodland Periods. Anthropological Papers No. 35. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Neiman, F. D. 1995 Stylistic Variation in Evolutionary Perspective: Inferences from Decorative Diversity and Interassemblage Distance in Illinois Woodland Ceramic Assemblages. American Antiquity 60: 736.Google Scholar
Nelson, M. C. 1991 The Study of Technological Organization. In Archaeological Method and Theory, edited by Schiffer, M., pp. 57100. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
O'Brien, M. J. 1987 Sedentism, Population Growth, and Resource Selection in the Woodland Midwest: A Review of Coevolutionary Developments. Current Anthropology 28: 177189.Google Scholar
O'Brien, M. J., and Warren, R. E. 1983 An Archaic Projectile Point Sequence from the Southern Prairie Peninsula: the Pigeon Roost Creek Site. In Archaic Hunters and Gatherers in the American Midwest, edited by Phillips, J. and Brown, J., pp. 7198. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
O'Brien, M. J., and Warren, R. E. (editors) 1979 Cannon Reservoir Human Ecology Project-A Regional Approach to Cultural Continuity and Change. Technical Report 79-11. Submitted to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District; Division of Archaeological Research, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Odell, G. H. 1978 Preliminaires d'une analyse fonctionnelle des pointes microlithiques de Bergumermeer (Pays-Bas). Bulletin de la Societe Prehistorique Francaise 75: 3749.Google Scholar
Odell, G. H. 1981 The Mechanics of Use-Breakage of Stone Tools: Some Testable Hypotheses. Journal of Field Archaeology 8: 197209.Google Scholar
Odell, G. H. 1985a Archaic Lithic Assemblages from the Stratified Napoleon Hollow Site in Illinois. Wisconsin Archaeologist 66: 327358.Google Scholar
Odell, G. H. 1985b Lithic Use-Wear Analysis of the Archaic Occupations. In The Campbell Hollow Archaic Occupations: A Study oflntrasite Spatial Structure in the Lower Illinois Valley, edited by Stafford, C.R., pp. 121157. Research Series, vol. 4. Center for American Archeology, Kampsville, Illinois.Google Scholar
Odell, G. H. 1988 Addressing Prehistoric Hunting Practices Through Stone Tool Analysis. American Anthropologist 90: 335356.Google Scholar
Odell, G. H. 1994a Prehistoric Hafting and Mobility in the North American Midcontinent: Examples from Illinois. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 13: 5173.Google Scholar
Odell, G. H. 1994b The Role of Stone Bladelets in Middle Woodland Society. American Antiquity 59: 102120.Google Scholar
Odell, G. H. 1996 Stone Tools and Mobility in the Illinois Valley: From Hunter-Gatherer Camps to Agricultural Villages. International Monographs in Prehistory, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Odell, G. H., and Cowan, F. 1986 Experimentation with Spears and Arrows Using Animal Targets. Journal of Field Archaeology 13: 195212.Google Scholar
Ohel, M. Y. 1987 The Acheulean Handaxe: A Maintainable Multifunctional Tool. Lithic Technology 16: 5455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parry, W. J. 1994 Prismatic Blade Technologies in North America. In The Organization of North American Prehistoric Chipped Stone Technologies, edited by Carr, P., pp. 8798. International Monographs in Prehistory, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Parry, W J., and Kelly, R. L. 1987 Expedient Core Technology and Sedentism. In The Organization of Core Technology, edited by Johnson, J. and Morrow, C., pp. 285304. Westview Press, Boulder.Google Scholar
Petersson, M. 1951 Mikrolithen als Pfeilspitzen. Ein Fund aus dem Lille Loshult Moor, Ksp. Loshult, Skane. Meddelanden fran Lunds Universitets Historiska Museum 4: 123137.Google Scholar
Petersson, M. 1983 Archaic Hunters and Gatherers in the American Midwest. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Rick, J. W. 1996 Projectile Points, Style, and Social Process in the Preceramic of Central Peru. In Stone Tools: Theoretical Insights into Human Prehistory, edited by Odell, G., pp. 245278. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Rust, A. 1943 Die alt- unt mittelsteinzeitlichen Funde von Stellmoor. Karl Wachholz Verlag, Neumunster.Google Scholar
Sale, K. 1990 The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.Google Scholar
Schick, K. D., and Toth, N. 1993 Making Silent Stones Speak: Human Evolution and the Dawn of Technology. Simon & Schuster, New York.Google Scholar
Shott, M. J. 1986 Technological Organization and Settlement Mobility: an Ethnographic Examination. Journal of Anthropological Research 42: 1551.Google Scholar
Stafford, B. D., and Sant, M. B. (editors) 1985 Smiling Dan: Structure and Function at a Middle Woodland Settlement in the Illinois Valley. Research Series, vol. 2. Center for American Archeology, Kampsville, Illinois.Google Scholar
Stafford, C. R. 1985(editor) The Campbell Hollow Archaic Occupations: A Study in Spatial Structure and Site Function in the Lower Illinois Valley. Research Series, vol. 4. Center for American Archeology, Kampsville, Illinois.Google Scholar
Stafford, C. R. 1991 Archaic Period Logistical Foraging Strategies in West-Central Illinois. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 16: 212246.Google Scholar
Steinen, K. T. 1992 Ambushes, Raids, and Palisades: Mississippian Warfare in the Interior Southeast. Southeastern Archaeology 11: 132139.Google Scholar
Tankersley, K. B. 1991 A Geoarchaeological Investigation of Distribution and Exchange in the Raw Material Economies of Clovis Groups in Eastern North America. In Raw Material Economies among Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers, edited by A. Montet-White and S. Holen, pp. 285303. Publications in Anthropology, no. 19. University of Kansas, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Thomas, D. H. 1983 The Archaeology of Monitor Valley. 1. Epistemology. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. 58, part 1. New York.Google Scholar
Thomas, D. H. 1989 Time, Energy and Stone Tools. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Tringham, R., Cooper, G., Odell, G., Voytek, B., and Whitman, A. 1974 Experimentation in the Formation of Edge Damage: A New Approach to Lithic Analysis. Journal of Field Archaeology 1: 171196.Google Scholar
van Gijn, A. L. 1990 The Wear and Tear of Flint: Principles of Functional Analysis Applied to Dutch Neolithic Assemblages. Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 22. Leiden.Google Scholar
Vega, G. de la 1988 The Florida of the lnca. Translated and edited by John G. Varner and Jeannette J. Varner. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Wedel, M. M. 1982 The Wichita Indians in the Arkansas River Basin. In Plains Indian Studies, edited by Ubelaker, D. and Viola, H., pp. 118134. Contributions to Anthropology No. 30. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Wedel, M. M. 1983 Napoleon Hollow and Koster Site Stratigraphy: Implications for Holocene Landscape Evolution and Studies of Archaic Period Settlement Patterns in the Lower Illinois River Valley. In Archaic Hunters and Gatherers in the American Midwest, edited by Phillips, J. and Brown, J., pp. 147164. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Wiant, M. D., and McGimsey, C. R. (editors) 1986 Woodland Period Occupations of the Napoleon Hollow Site in the Lower Illinois Valley. Research Series, vol. 6. Center for American Archeology, Kampsville, Illinois.Google Scholar
Winship, G. P. 1896 The Coronado Expedition, 1540-1542. Bureau of American Ethnology, Annual Report 14: 329613. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Yerkes, R. W. 1983 Microwear, Microdrills, and Mississippian Craft Specialization. American Antiquity 48: 499518.Google Scholar
Yerkes, R. W. 1987 Prehistoric Life on the Mississippi Floodplain. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Yerkes, R. W. 1989 Mississippian Craft Specialization on the American Bottom. Southeastern Archaeology 8: 93106.Google Scholar