Exploring the Function and Adaptive Context of Paleo-Arctic Projectile Points

This dissertation presents new data on projectile point variability, technological organization, and site distribution in Upper Paleolithic Siberia and late Pleistocene/early Holocene Beringia, relating projectile point morphology, weapon systems, use wear data, and site assemblage variability to functional and cultural application spaces of prehistoric technologies. This research is divided into three related articles, first focusing on experimental investigations of the relationships between Beringian projectile point forms and prehistoric weapon systems. Lithic bifacial, simple osseous, and composite projectile point forms observed in the Beringian record are tested as arming elements of three weapon-delivery systems allowing for quantitative comparing of efficiency and lethality performances for each individual combination of weapon system and projectile-point morphology. Results indicate lithic bifacial and composite projectile points are most effective hafted as spear thrower points and hand-thrust spear tips, respectively. Better defined functional characterizations of prehistoric hunting toolkits furthers understandings of adaptive responses to resource fluctuation, landscape use, and technological organization. Next, this dissertation updates the geochronology and occupation record of the Blair Lakes Archaeological District, specifically the north shore of Blair Lake south, to contribute to our understanding of understudied landscapes in interior Alaska. Testing and excavation results confirm regional occupations that began nearly 11,000 calendar years ago and continued through the historic period. Together these results demonstrate the significance of the Blair Lakes Archaeological District and enhance our understanding of Holocene technological variability, site distribution, mobility, and landscape use in interior Alaska. This research concludes with a comparative morphological and use wear analysis of 11 osseous artifact assemblages from Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic sites across Siberia and Beringia, focusing on the relationships between raw material, point morphology, and function. Results show that raw material significantly influences point morphology, morphological variability increases during the late Upper Paleolithic, and osseous artifacts offer an avenue for exploring prehistoric cultural application spaces. Ultimately, this dissertation provides insight into functional and cultural application spaces of Beringian projectile points, providing a better understanding of prehistoric hunting tool kits and technological organization of Beringian foragers and the relation of these adaptations to changing ecological conditions. This dissertation presents new data on projectile-point variability, technological organization, and site distribution in Upper Paleolithic Siberia and late Pleistocene/early Holocene Beringia, relating projectile-point morphology, weapon systems, use-wear data, and site-assemblage variability to functional and cultural application spaces of prehistoric technologies. This research is divided into three related articles, first focusing on experimental investigations of the relationships between Beringian projectile point forms and prehistoric weapon systems. Lithic bifacial, simple osseous, and composite projectile point forms observed in the Beringian record are tested as arming elements of three weapon-delivery systems allowing for quantitative comparison of efficiency and lethality performances for each individual combination of weapon system and projectile-point morphology. Results indicate lithic bifacial and composite projectile points are most effective hafted as spear-thrower points and hand-thrust spear tips, respectively. Better defined functional characterizations of prehistoric hunting toolkits furthers understandings of adaptive responses to resource fluctuation, landscape use, and technological organization. Next, this dissertation updates the geochronology and occupation record of the Blair Lakes Archaeological District, specifically the north shore of Blair Lake south, to contribute to our understanding of understudied landscapes in interior Alaska. The field project was designed in part to provide the author with an important experience directing a project in which new archaeological materials relevant to other facets of the dissertation were obtained. Testing and excavation results confirm regional occupations that began nearly 11,000 calendar years ago and continued through the historic period. Together these results demonstrate the significance of the Blair Lakes Archaeological District and enhance our understanding of Holocene technological variability, site distribution, mobility, and landscape use in interior Alaska. This research concludes with a comparative morphological and use wear analysis of 11 osseous artifact assemblages from Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic sites across Siberia and Beringia, focusing on the relationships between raw material, point morphology, and function. Results show that raw material significantly influenced point morphology, significant morphological variability existed during the late Upper Paleolithic, and osseous artifacts offer an avenue for exploring prehistoric cultural application spaces. Specifically, this stud shows that osseous projectile points inset with microblades were an extremely lethal weapon tip, as also indicated in the experimental work presented earlier in the dissertation. Ultimately, this dissertation provides insight into functional and cultural application spaces of Beringian projectile points, providing a better understanding of prehistoric hunting tool kits and technological organization of Beringian foragers and the relation of these adaptations to changing ecological conditions