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By John E. Dockall Prewitt & Associates, Inc. Austin, Texas

Stability with Change: Characterizing Early-to-Late Holocene Lithic Technology at the Richard Beene Site. By John E. Dockall Prewitt & Associates, Inc. Austin, Texas. Illustrations courtesy of www.TexasBeyondHistory.net. Site Resources. Locally available lithic resources

arsenio-zamora
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By John E. Dockall Prewitt & Associates, Inc. Austin, Texas

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  1. Stability with Change: Characterizing Early-to-Late Holocene Lithic Technology at the Richard Beene Site By John E. Dockall Prewitt & Associates, Inc. Austin, Texas Illustrations courtesy of www.TexasBeyondHistory.net

  2. Site Resources • Locally available lithic resources • Upland: bison, deer, pronghorn, small game • Floodplain: onions, false garlic, prickly pear tunas, other root and nut foods • Riverine: fish, shellfish, turtles

  3. Early, Early Archaic Angostura Points  Represented by heavily resharpened and broken specimens.  Angostura preforms absent.  Breakage patterns and resharpening suggest hunting gear was being replaced and repaired.  Alternate beveling common.

  4. Lerma Bifaces  Co-occurred with Angostura points in Upper Perez contexts.  No preforms for Lerma points present in the assemblages.  Use-wear and breakage patterns suggest that Lerma bifaces functioned as hafted knives and projectile points.

  5. Early, Early Archaic Beveled Bifaces  Common in Upper Perez. Technological affinities with other similar implements such as Clear Fork bifaces and Dalton adzes.  Fracture patterns suggest on site use, discard, and resharpening.  Use-wear damage suggests woodworking.

  6. Early, Early Archaic Cores Types in Upper Perez contexts are discoid, conical, amorphous, and prepared. Indicates a variety of reduction techniques were applied to produce flakes for tools.

  7. Early, Early Archaic Lithic Assemblages  Common to Upper Perez contexts.  Includes gravers, denticulate flake tools, other flake tools, pieces esquilles, and burin spalls and tools.

  8. Middle, Early Archaic Lithic Assemblages  From Elm Creek contexts.  Includes a variety of edge modified tools and cores, bifacial adzes, and a bola stone.

  9. Middle, Early Archaic Lithic Assemblages  Present in Elm Creek contexts.  Massive quartzite cobble tools and sandstone milling stones

  10. Late, Early Archaic Stemmed-Indented Base Points  Common to Lower Medina contexts.  Uvalde, Baker, Martindale, Bandy types.  No preforms present in the lithic assemblages.  Specimens exhibit consistent resharpening and alternate edge-beveling.

  11. Late, Early Archaic Assemblages  From Lower Medina contexts.  Includes amorphous and conical cores, simple flake tools and unifaces, and occasional bifacial adzes.

  12. Middle Archaic Diagnostics  Common to Upper Medina contexts.  Bell/Andice, Desmuke, Uvalde, Travis? types.  No preforms present in the lithic assemblages.  Specimens are broken or heavily resharpened.

  13. Middle Archaic Lithic Assemblages  From Upper Medina contexts.  Includes bifaces, unifaces, large hafted cobble tools, bifacial adzes and simple flake tools.

  14. Early, Late Archaic Diagnostics  Common to Upper Leon Creek contexts.  Includes Ensor, Lange, Marcos, Marshall, Pedernales, and Langtry.  No preforms present in the lithic assemblages.  Whole points with bifacial blade resharpening.

  15. Early, Late Archaic Lithic Assemblages  Common to upper Leon Creek contexts.  Generalized percussion cores.  A variety of retouched flake tools.

  16. Late Prehistoric Lithic Assemblages  From Payaya contexts.  Perdiz arrow points but no arrowpoint preforms.  Small chert drill and expedient flake tools.  Generalized percussion cores.  Small number of plain ceramics.  Toyah phase occupation.

  17. Raw Material Usage

  18. Size Grade Groups by Component

  19. Size Grade Variability by Block

  20. Flake Types by Component

  21. Comparative Ratios • Flake/Core • Flake/Biface • Points/Formal Tools • Core/Biface • Core/Point • Flakes/Formal Tools

  22. Other Comparative Measures Measure of Use Intensity Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index

  23. Selected Ratios by Block

  24. Additional Ratios

  25. Use Intensity Use Intensity (Total Debitage Density per M2/total millennia)

  26. Assemblage Diversity Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index

  27. Conclusions  Assemblages tend to reflect low diversity and low use intensity  Patterning suggests decreasing group ranges or territories or increasing numbers of smaller groups with restricted territories through time  Similar patterns of use through time but with decreasing frequency of use from Early Archaic to Late Prehistoric  Behaviors reflect a mix of hunting and non-hunting subsistence related activities related to site location within an area of varied resource potential

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