The Organization of Paleoindian Lithic Technology at the Potts Site

Abstract

Several recent studies of northeastern Paleoindian material culture have focused explicitly on how their technological systems articulated with other aspects of their adaptation. Analyses of blank production and tool manufacture provide a basis for modelling Paleoindian technological organization at the site. Goodyear argues that Paleoindians solved the logistical problem by "the creation of portable technologies." The Paleoindian preference for cryptocrystalline raw materials is explained by Goodyear in terms of the "control, reliability, and &s;plasticity&s; " of these materials during tool manufacture and maintenance. Arboreal vegetation around the Potts site at the time of the Gainey Phase occupations was probably similar to that inferred by pollen studies for this time elsewhere in the Great Lakes. Analysis of the Potts assemblage indicates that in fact two types of bifaces, biface preforms and biface cores, provided blanks for certain classes of stone tools. Crosstabulation of morphological tool classes by blank types reveals differences in the selection of blank types for different tools.

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