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Debitage Analysis and Archaeological Interpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Alan P. Sullivan III  and
Kenneth C. Rozen
Alan P. Sullivan III
Affiliation:
Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
Kenneth C. Rozen
Affiliation:
Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
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Abstract

The systematic study of chipped stone debitage provides important information about prehistoric lithic technology. However, the results of most debitage analyses are unconvincing because of questionable assumptions and inherent flaws in the typologies used to classify the material. After briefly reviewing these problems, we present an alternative approach that does not rely on the presumed technological origins of individual artifacts as the basis for debitage classification and interpretation. An important element of this approach is a typology composed of interpretation-free and mutually exclusive debitage categories. The derivation of this typology is described and the utility of the approach is demonstrated with two Arizona case studies. The TEP St. Johns project provides new data and interpretations about Archaic Period technological and settlement changes while the Pitiful Flats study illustrates how differences in functional and organizational factors affect debitage assemblage variability.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , October 1985 , pp. 755 - 779
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1985

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References

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