Technological Correlates of Gwaii Haanas Microblades

Abstract

Microblade technology in Gwaii Haanas appears to develop from a lithic technology based on bifaces and unifacial scraperplane tools. At the high resolution Richardson Island site, there are char temporal trends in artifact frequencies, particularly among bifaces, microblades and scraperplane classes, as well as raw material types, that strongly support a model of in-situ change. These changes are gradual, not sudden. The trends continue at the two slightly later and geographically separate microblade-bearing sites of Arrow Creek I and Lyell Bay, indicating they are not isolated to one location. Some morphological clues among the scraperplane classes and microblade cores are perhaps revealing of consistencies in manufacturing behaviour in pre-miaroblade and microblade phases.

The initial phases of widespread, indeed pervasive, microblade manufacture coincide with peak Holocene sea level rise and stabilization at about 9000 B.P. Therefore, in-situ technological change could relate directly to stabilization of key subsistence resources whose use is facilitated by microblades, loss of resources through flooding that led to a refocus of extractive strategies (such as loss of access to stone sources or various plant species), a combination of those, or other reasons. Alternatively, the observable changes occurred as a result of other factors, such as population replacement. This suggestion of in-situ microblade technology development has bearing on the nature of microblade appearances in other areas of the greater Northwest in the late Pleistocene and throughout the Holocene period.