Working With Expedient Lithic Technologies in the Northern Highlands

Archaeologists frequently overlook the lithic technologies of complex societies, in part because these technologies are often very informal and expedient. Lithic assemblages from Andean complex societies show that informal chipped lithic tools were used extensively throughout the pre-Hispanic Andes, although few studies have focused on these artifacts. In this paper, I explore ways that we can derive social information from informal lithic tools and their waste cores and debitage. I do this by analyzing the chipped lithic artifacts excavated from four sites associated with the Oracle of Catequil, a major ceremonial center in the northern highlands of Peru that was in use from ca. 400-1555 C.E. This assemblage consists almost exclusively of informal lithic tools and these were produced in a very expedient manner. By studying both production and function, I show that important social and economic information can be discerned from studying informal and expedient chipped lithic assemblages. lthough common in many archaeological contexts, archaeologists ofte