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9. Spatial Organization of the Clovis Lithic Workshops
- Texas A&M University Press
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167 CHAPTER 9 The concentrations of Clovis artifacts and bones recovered from Units 3a and 3b at Excavation Area 8 represent two separate occupations of the workshop. Artifact refitting, artifact orientation studies, and other analyses presented in chapter 2 demonstrate that the artifacts and bones in Unit 3a were not disturbed during burial or by post-depositional processes. Furthermore, this material is contemporaneous and accumulated in no more than one to two decades and may even represent one to five discrete knapping episodes. The artifacts and bones in Unit 3b are likewise contemporaneous and were not disturbed during or after burial. These materials accumulated and were buried over a short period of time, perhaps lasting several decades. Thus, meaningful interpretations of the spatial pattern of artifacts and bones in both Units 3a and 3b are possible. The spatial analysis that follows is based on the distribution of 916 mapped artifacts (Unit 3a, n = 671; Unit 3b, n = 245) and 129 pieces of mapped bone (Unit 3a, n = 88; Unit 3b, n = 41) for which horizontal and vertical coordinates were recorded during excavation. Supplementing these data are the counts and weights of nonpiece -plotted artifacts and bones recovered during screening from the 0.25-inch and 0.125-inch mesh (tables 7 and 36). Spatial Scales The ethnoarchaeological research of Yellen (1977) and Binford (1978) on the patterns of artifacts and features created by modern hunter-gatherer activities provides useful frameworks for analyzing archaeological sites. Yellen (1977) made several important observations concerning intrasite patterning in his analysis of Kalahari hunter-gatherer campsites. Campsites were organized into repeated modules, and each module represented a single nuclear family. Individual modules consisted of a structure, a hearth, and the by-products of activities that occurred around the hearth. Debris from cooking and other activities (e.g., scraps of plant foods, bone fragments, egg shell, wood shavings, fiber) normally is confined to the area immediately adjacent to each hearth. Other activities occurred beyond and between hearths when the tasks required more space or generated excessive amounts of waste (e.g., processing hides or roasting large animal heads). Finally, the number of days the campsite was occupied and the number of families occupying the site affected both the size of the site and the variety of the materials left behind when the site was abandoned. Spatial Organization of the Clovis Lithic Workshops 168 CHAPTER 9 Binford (1978) recorded and analyzed the Mask site, a hunting stand in Alaska that was used multiple times by Nunamiut men searching for game, primarily caribou . Hunting parties ranged from three to thirteen men. The site had four hearths, though they were not always used simultaneously. The number of hunters and the wind direction affected where men positioned themselves in relation to the fire. A variety of tasks occurred around the hearth while the men watched for game, including maintaining or repairing gear and craft activities such as carving wood, horn, or ivory. At this site, different tasks, conducted at different times, produced overlapping activity areas. The range of activities at a special-purpose camp like the Mask site was smaller than the range of activities Binford (1978) observed at Nunamiut residential camps, which were used by entire families. He also noted that the debris resulting from activities at the Mask site tended to be size-sorted. Small pieces of detritus dropped straight to the ground in what Binford referred to as a “drop zone,” whereas large items were sometimes tossed forward or backward, forming a ring of debris or “toss zone” around the hearth. To see how Excavation Area 8 relates in size to a hunter-gatherer camp, in figure 75 we superimpose the Gault block onto Yellen’s (1977) Camp 16. Camp 16 was occupied by Kalahari hunter-gatherers for six days by twelve adults and seven children . It represents a short-term occupation at the end of the dry season. Camp 16 is a relatively large camp compared to the others documented by Yellen (1977) and includes multiple hearths. The 20 m2 block at Excavation Area 8 covers about 10 percent of the total area of Camp 16, but the block is large enough to encompass most of a single nuclear family hearth area. If the Clovis camps at the Gault site were similar in size to Yellen’s Camp 16, there would be space for dozens of them within the boundary of the Gault site. By comparison, the Mask site is smaller than Camp 16, and the...