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For at least three million years, knapping stone has been practiced by hominin societies large and small, past and present. Thus, understanding knapping, knappers, and knapping cultures is fundamental to anthropological research around the world. Although there is a general sense that stone knapping is inherently dangerous and can lead to injury, little is formally, specifically, or systematically known about the frequency, location, or severity of knapping injuries. Toward this end, we conducted a 31-question survey of modern knappers to better understand knapping risks. Responses from 173 survey participants suggest that knapping injuries are a real and persistent hazard, even though a majority of modern knappers use personal protective equipment. A variety of injuries (lacerations, punctures, aches, etc.) can occur on nearly any part of the body. The severity of injury sustained by some of our participants is shocking, and nearly one-quarter of respondents reported having sought or received professional medical attention for a flintknapping-related injury. Overall, the results of this survey suggest that there would have likely been serious, even fatal, costs to knappers in past societies. Such costs may have encouraged the deployment of any social learning capacities possessed by hominins or delayed the learning or exposure of young infants or children to knapping.

The Mielke site (33SH26) is a multicomponent locality in western Ohio, in an upland portion of the state that forms a drainage divide between the Great Lakes and Ohio River watersheds. The site possesses a prominent Clovis component that we describe here and assessed via test excavations, geochemical sourcing, technological descriptions, geometric morphometrics, microwear, and GIS analysis. Five different raw materials, whose outcrops are located 150+ km from the site in several different directions, appear to be present. Although our inferences about the activities that occurred here in Clovis times are constrained by the presence of later components and the collecting history of the site, its location and artifacts are suggestive of what type of Clovis site Mielke may have been and how its Late Pleistocene inhabitants may have moved across North America's midcontinent.

Levallois points are a prominent part of many Levantine Middle Paleolithic assemblages. They are either produced intentionally or incidentally by the Levallois core reduction technique and are of a generally similar shape, although the degree to which they were used as specialized tools has been questioned. Here, we examine Levallois points using geometric morphometric analyses to assess the range of shape variation in this artifact type. We then compare Levallois point shape variation and symmetry to a sample of Late Pleistocene-aged Folsom projectile points from North America. Folsom are highly standardized projectile points that current evidence suggests were primarily used for hunting ancient bison. Our results indicate that Levallois points are more variable and asymmetrical than Folsom and therefore more generalized than Folsom. Differences in manufacturing technique, hafting, and delivery system when used as weapons are posited as playing roles in the differences in shape and symmetry that we document. Introduction Materials and methods - Point samples - Geometric morphometric procedures - Statistical analyses Results - Levallois point shape variation - Comparison of Levallois points with Folsom - Symmetry of Levallois and Folsom points Discussion

Before Europeans arrived to Eastern North America, prehistoric, indigenous peoples experienced a number of changes that culminated in the development of sedentary, maize agricultural lifeways of varying complexity. Inherent to these lifeways were several triggers of social stress including population nucleation and increase, intergroup conflict (warfare), and increased territoriality. Here, we examine whether this period of social stress co-varied with deadlier weaponry, specifically, the design of the most commonly found prehistoric archery component in late pre-contact North America: triangular stone arrow tips (TSAT). The examination of modern metal or carbon projectiles, arrows, and arrowheads has demonstrated that smaller arrow tips penetrate deeper into a target than do larger ones. We first experimentally confirm that this relationship applies to arrow tips made from stone hafted onto shafts made from wood. We then statistically assess a large sample (n = 742) of late pre-contact TSAT and show that these specimens are extraordinarily small. Thus, by miniaturizing their arrow tips, prehistoric people in Eastern North America optimized their projectile weaponry for maximum penetration and killing power in warfare and hunting. Finally, we verify that these functional advantages were selected across environmental and cultural boundaries. Thus, while we cannot and should not rule out stochastic, production economizing, or non-adaptive cultural processes as an explanation for TSAT, overall our results are consistent with the hypothesis that broad, socially stressful demographic changes in late pre-contact Eastern North America resulted in the miniaturization–and augmented lethality–of stone tools across the region.

Seeman, Morris, and Summers misrepresent or misunderstand the arguments we have made, as well as their own previous work. Here, we correct these inaccuracies. We also reiterate our support for hypothesis-driven and evidence-based research.

Toward the end of the Pleistocene, the world experienced a mass extinction of megafauna. In North America these included its proboscideans—the mammoths and mastodons. Researchers in conservation biology, paleontology, and archaeology have debated the role played by human predation in these extinctions. They point to traces of human butchery, such as cut marks and other bone surface modifications (BSM), as evidence of human-animal interactions—including predation and scavenging, between early Americans and proboscideans. However, others have challenged the validity of the butchery evidence observed on several proboscidean assemblages, largely due to questions of qualitative determination of the agent responsible for creating BSM. This study employs a statistical technique that relies on three-dimensional (3D) imaging data and 3D geometric morphometrics to determine the origin of the BSM observed on the skeletal remains of the Bowser Road mastodon (BR mastodon), excavated in Middletown, New York. These techniques have been shown to have high accuracy in identifying and distinguishing among different types of BSM. To better characterize the BSM on the BR mastodon, we compared them quantitatively to experimental BSM resulting from a stone tool chopping experiment using “Arnold,” the force-calibrated chopper. This study suggests that BSM on the BR mastodon are not consistent with the BSM generated by the experimental chopper. Future controlled experiments will compare other types of BSM to those on BR. This research contributes to continued efforts to decrease the uncertainty surrounding human-megafauna associations at the level of the archaeological site and faunal assemblage—specifically that of the BR mastodon assemblage. Consequently, we also contribute to the dialogue surrounding the character of the human-animal interactions between early Americans and Late Pleistocene megafauna, and the role of human foraging behavior in the latter’s extinction.

Everhart and Biehl's research, discussed within, questions our conclusions regarding a ceramic figurine allegedly from Hopeton Earthworks. They conclude that the figurine is culturally Hopewell and that its provenience is the Hopewell Mound Group. Here, we demonstrate that there is no verified provenience for the figurine and no evidence for validly inferring a Hopewell affiliation. Instead, the preponderance of evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that the figurine is non-Hopewell in origin.

This study presents the results of an experimental assessment of Clovis projectile durability, or the ability of Clovis point forms and their hafts to withstand impact damage. This work is the seco...

We previously showed that stone-tool technological attributes thought to be unique to the Clovis period were present in a radiocarbon and OSL dated middle Holocene-age stratum at Goodson Shelter, O...

A variety of flaked stone projectile point attributes can affect impact durability, which is the relationship between projectile impact force and point breakage. We examine the role of isometric sc...

The Antelope Springs Folsom locality is located near Trout Creek Pass, which connects South Park, a high elevation basin in the Rocky Mountains, with the headwaters region of the Arkansas River. Th...

Archaeological collections are foundational to the discipline. Yet, researchers who study curated assemblages can face challenges. Here, we show how experimental archaeology can play a vital role in the interpretation of old archaeological collections. The Welling site, in Coshocton County, Ohio, is a multicomponent, stratified site with a substantial Clovis component in its lower levels. Using experimental flaked stone replication, we create an analog model of a “pure” Clovis bifacial debitage assemblage, as might be found at a lithic workshop. We predicted that if the Welling Clovis debitage assemblage was representative of a lithic workshop, then it would be similar to the experimental model. If the debitage assemblage was representative of a base camp, however, then it would be significantly different from the model because Clovis people would have been using, transporting, resharpening, rejuvenating, and recycling the debitage—all activities that would modify a “pure” Clovis bifacial debitage assemblage. Our statistical analyses supported the latter prediction. Overall, our study illustrates how productive the integration of experimental and archaeological data can be, and it emphasizes how important the curation and accessibility of both archaeological and experimental collections are to the discipline.

In 2011, the University of Toledo, Ohio, transferred five Clovis fluted points to the Department of Archaeology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History for permanent curation. Here, following several similar previous efforts, we describe these five Late Pleistocene artifacts with technological descriptions, illustrations, morphometrics, and microwear. These specimens support long-distance lithic procurement (> 200 km) from central Ohio to NW Ohio, as well as the exploitation of the NW Ohio and southern Michigan landscape by Clovis Paleoindian foragers.

In Late Pleistocene North America colonizing hunter-gatherers knapped and used Clovis fluted projectile points. During their expansion the size and shape of Clovis points changed significantly. Arc...

Experimental archaeology continues to mature methodologically and theoretically. Around the world, practitioners are increasingly using modern materials that would have been unavailable to prehistoric people in archaeological experiments. The use of a modern material substitute can offer several benefits to experimental method, design, control, replicability, feasibility, and cost, but it should be directly compared to its “traditional” analogue to understand similarities and differences. Here, aluminum is introduced as a substitute for chert in prehistoric ballistics research because, critically, aluminum is safe, inexpensive, easy to process, and it and chert possess densities that differ by less than 4%. The aluminum casting process for replicating stone artifacts is presented, and it is shown that the aluminum castings are essentially identical in form, flake-scar patterning, and mass to their stone counterparts. We then present a proof-of-concept ballistics experiment that demonstrates no difference between aluminum and stone points in terms of target penetration.

Despite decades of study of post-depositional surface modification by lithic use-wear analysts, the impact of heat remains underexplored. In this paper, we present the results of an experiment desi...

For over 3 million years hominins held stone-cutting tools in the hand, gripping the portion of tool displaying a sharp cutting edge directly. During the late Middle Pleistocene human populations started to produce hafted composite knives, where the stone element displaying a sharp cutting edge was secured in a handle. Prevailing archaeological literature suggests that handles convey benefits to tool users by increasing cutting performance and reducing musculoskeletal stresses, yet to date these hypotheses remain largely untested. Here, we compare the cutting performance of hafted knives, ‘basic’ flake tools, and large bifacial tools during two standardized cutting tasks. Going further, we examine the comparative ergonomics of each tool type through electromyographic (EMG) analysis of nine upper limb muscles. Results suggest that knives (1) recruit muscles responsible for digit flexion (i.e. gripping) and in-hand manipulation relatively less than alternative stone tool types and (2) may convey functional performance benefits relative to unhafted stone tool alternatives when considered as a generalised cutting tool. Furthermore, our data indicate that knives facilitate greater muscle activity in the upper arm and forearm, potentially resulting in the application of greater cutting forces during tool use. Compared to unhafted prehistoric alternatives, hafted stone knives demonstrate increased ergonomic properties and some functional performance benefits. These factors would likely have contributed to the invention and widespread adoption of hafted stone knives during the late Middle Pleistocene.

Temper is an additive incorporated into clay during the formation of a ceramic vessel, and may consist of various materials. In a number of previous experiments over the past several decades, archaeologists have experimentally demonstrated that tempers used by prehistoric craftspeople would have imparted important post-firing use-life properties to ceramic vessels. However, although widely touted, the notion that prehistoric temper types would have aided in pre-firing vessel formation has never been systematically tested. Here, we experimentally assess whether calcium carbonate-based tempers, like limestone and burnt shell, would have made clay bodies more workable relative to silicate-based grit temper, as has been previously proposed. In this study, participants were asked to build five simple and challenging three-dimensional forms using grit-, limestone- and shell-tempered clay bodies, and then rank these conditions in terms of workability. Our statistical and qualitative assessments of these data were unambiguous: contrary to claims in the scientific literature, the calcium carbonate tempers did not make clay bodies more workable, and were consistently, sometimes significantly, ranked lower than silicate grit-tempered clay bodies in terms of workability. Our results have several implications for temper selection and evolution in prehistory, specifically during the widespread silicate grit to calcium carbonate transition during the Late Woodland period (AD 500‐1400) of the North American Midwest.

Goodson Rockshelter in Oklahoma has provided strong chronometric and typological evidence that early- and middle-stage fluted stone tool bases found there date to the Late Archaic. These results indicate that such specimens are not necessarily diagnostic of the late Pleistocene Clovis culture. Here, we present additional evidence that early- and middle-stage fluted bases do not automatically indicate a Clovis presence. The lithic assemblages east of the Fox Lake area in Northeast Ohio consist of debitage and tools, including five early- and middle-stage fluted bifaces. However, of the 20 diagnostic projectile points found in the surrounding area, all can be assigned to the Holocene (Early Archaic to the Late Prehistoric), and none to the Pleistocene. Until chronometric assessments of age can be conducted, the most parsimonious explanation for this pattern is that these early- and middle-stage fluted bifaces east of Fox Lake are Holocene in age, and not affiliated with the Clovis culture.

Robert J. Patten passed away suddenly on February 8, 2017. His influence on flintknapping, lithic technology, and archaeology, however, continues on. Here, we review Patten’s life and myriad contributions.

Stone was a critical resource for prehistoric hunter-gatherers. Archaeologists, therefore, have long argued that these groups would actively have sought out stone of ‘high quality’. Although the defining of quality can be a complicated endeavour, researchers in recent years have suggested that stone with fewer impurities would be preferred for tool production, as it can be worked and used in a more controllable way. The present study shows that prehistoric hunter-gatherers at the Holocene site of Welling, in Ohio, USA, continuously selected the ‘purest’ stone for over 9000 years.

Ground stone projectile points can be found throughout the global archaeological record, but why they were selected for by prehistoric foragers has received little attention. Additionally, modern archaeological experiments have increasingly used ground points in lieu of knapped ones. Here, we present an experiment testing whether there is a difference between ground, percussion flaked, and pressure flaked points in terms of impact durability. Our three groups were similar in form, raw material, and hafting, only differing in their production. Controlled ballistics tests demonstrated that ground stone points did not break at a different rate than either the percussion flaked or pressure flaked points, nor was post-firing point length (as a percentage of original point length) different. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that impact durability on its own was not likely a motivating factor for forager selection of grinding versus knapping. Instead, researchers should look to other factors, such as skill, demography, time budgets, or raw material selection to explain the emergence of ground stone points in particular contexts. Given our null results, our test also supports the use of ground stone points in modern archaeological experiments.

The Peopling of the Americas was a multi-millennium process involving both the hunter-gatherer colonization of new landscapes as well as the ‘settling in’ to local environments. This process is typically identified archaeologically by an increase in the number of recognized point types, site frequency, changes in subsistence patterns, and increased geographic patterning in stone tool variation. Here, we add to this list by examining preferential toolstone use by Clovis and Folsom peoples, reasoning that Folsom groups formed stricter habits of toolstone procurement relative to Clovis people as the former pursued their increasingly familiar seasonal rounds. After generating lithic raw material data from 49 Folsom assemblages, we constructed a ‘Folsom lithic network’ that we compared to a ‘Clovis lithic network’, which consisted of 38 assemblages. Our results show that the Folsom lithic network is significantly denser than the Clovis lithic network. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that Folsom people started to form regular habits of toolstone procurement relative to Clovis people. More broadly, our comparison of lithic networks further supports the hypothesis that the Clovis-to-Folsom transition represents the process of foragers increasingly adapting to their local resource distribution.