JOURACA_SP_2017

The Organization of Early Archaic Technology
in Southwest Alabama: A Lithic Analysis of
1WN106
James Norris
The Seed Tick Site (1WN106) was excavated
in 1991 by the late Read Stowe, who prepared
preliminary reports in addition to analyses by
Becky Stowe. Located in the Tombigbee River
Basin in southeastern Washington County,
it is a multi-component site based on stone
tool types; including Late Paleoindian, Archaic,
and Woodland diagnostics with a range of
10,000 - 1,200 B.P. This study provides the
first detailed analysis of the Early Archaic
component, which appears to be the most extensive.
In order to investigate Early Archaic
lifeways, a poorly understood time period in
the region, an organization of technology
model is employed which examines how stone
tools are responsive to economic, ideological,
and social strategies. Before the analysis could
begin, the entire collection had to be organized.
This included re-sorting by raw materials
and establishing proveniences. Once the
reconstruction of the entire site was completed
and a site map produced, the Early Archaic
components were isolated, mapped and analyzed.
This analysis included an examination
of the stone tools from a cultural-historical
and technological basis, as well as a detailed
analysis of flake debris through aggregate and
individual flake analysis. These analyses are
ongoing, to date results indicate people occupying
the site brought a stone toolkit with
them to the site that included non-local Tallahatta
Sandstone and chert. Based on the flake
debris and tool analyses, these curated tools
were used at the site, resharpened, and discarded
there.
Department of Anthropology and
Geography
Anthropology
Mentor: Phil Carr
These tools were used in the day-to-day activities
of acquiring food resources and making the
site habitable for the time people occupied it.
Those discarded tools were replaced by ones
newly made using a local raw material: Ferruginious
Sandstone. The heavily concentrated
Ferruginious Sandstone debris, as well as quartz
debris suggest the manufacture of expedient as
well as curated tools by Early Archaic huntergatherers.
Additional analyses will be aimed at
testing hypotheses regarding the mobility strategy
employed by the site's residents. Through
the investigation of cultural lifeways in the past,
archaeologists can examine long-term cultural
changes to better understand how and why cul-
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