“Knapping, My Child, is Made of Errors”: Apprentice Knappers at Swan Point and Little Panguingue Creek, Two Prehistoric Sites in Central Alaska

ABSTRACT

In Beringia, as in many other parts of the world, stone tools are the main diagnostic cultural artifact for understanding prehistoric societies. The analysis of lithic assemblages is the basis for establishing connections between sites and techno-complexes. Through highlighting major technological trends, archaeologists are able to interpret processes such as cultural continuity and migrations. Here we present a fine-grained analysis of two assemblages to perceive in detail the individuals behind the lithic productions, more specifically apprentice knappers. Although recognition of apprenticeship in a prehistoric context is not new, this is the first such study for Alaska and Beringia. We focus on two distinct assemblages with microblade technology: the late Pleistocene component of Swan Point CZ4b (Tanana valley) and the early Holocene component of Little Panguingue Creek C2 (Nenana valley), both in central Alaska.

KEYWORDS:

• Alaska
• prehistory
• microblade
• apprenticeship
• lithic technology

Acknowledgements

Fieldwork at the Little Panguingue Creek site has been financially supported by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MEAE), the French Polar Institute Paul-Émile Victor (IPEV), the Center for the Study of the First Americans (CSFA) of Texas A&M University, Elfrieda Frank Foundation, CNRS laboratory UMR 8096 Archaeology of the Americas and CNRS laboratory UMR 7055 Prehistory and Technology. We would also like to thank the Department of Archaeology of the University of Alaska Museum of the North (UAMN) for providing access to the early collections from Little Panguingue Creek. Study of the Swan Point collection in 2013 was supported by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MEAE). We are also very grateful for the comments and insight from Catherine Perlès on an earlier draft of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Yan Axel Gómez Coutouly is a permanent researcher at the CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research). His research focuses on lithic technology among late Pleistocene and early Holocene societies in Beringia, during the initial stages of the peopling process of the Americas. Since 2013, he has been directing the French archaeological mission in Alaska (mafAK).

Angela K. Gore is a PhD candidate at the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M University. Her research is focused on the interaction of human culture and the environment in the North American sub-Arctic, specifically lithic toolstone technologies from the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. She is especially interested in toolstone selection, procurement, and sourcing as well as landscape use.

Charles E. Holmes is an Affiliate Research Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and earned his Ph.D. from Washington State University. His research interests include; lithic technology, geoarchaeology, palaeo-environmental reconstruction, Beringian archaeology, and Alaska Native prehistory.

Kelly E. Graf is an associate professor in the Center for the Study of the First Americans, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University. Her research focuses on the study of geoarcheology, lithic technology, and environmental archaeology to better understand the peopling of Siberia, Beringia, and the Americas.

Ted Goebel is a professor of anthropology at Texas A&M University. He has been involved in many field archaeological projects in central Alaska, including excavations at the nearby Panguingue Creek, Walker Road, and Dry Creek sites.

Notes

1 A ridge-spall, the first long removal along the ridge of the core to create a platform, is sometimes called a crested blade. Here, the term crested blade refers to the primary spall created on the front or face of the core prior to the production of the microblades; tablets from Yubetsu cores are also called ski-spalls.

2 All cores and preforms from Swan Point discussed in this article have been assigned arbitrary names (SP1, SP2, SP3, etc.). The actual catalog numbers are as follows: SP1: #22523; SP2: #21885; SP3: #23323; SP4: #15795; SP5: #23459; SP6: #15886; SP7: #13326; SP8: #20760; SP9: #19241; SP10 : #15542; SP11: #20678; SP12: #15930

3 All cores and preforms from Little Panguingue Creek discussed in this article have been assigned arbitrary names (LP1, LP2, LP3, etc.). The actual catalog numbers are as follows: LP1: #UA84-151-4; LP2: #UA2015-235-98; LP3: #UA2016-059-0750; LP4: #UA2016-059-0979; LP5: #UA84-151-3; LP6: #UA84-151-6; LP7: #UA84-151-0008; LP8: #UA84-151-1/UA87-083-5; LP9: #UA2016-059-0512; LP10: #UA2019-09-0105.

Additional information

Funding

Fieldwork at the Little Panguingue Creek site has been financially supported by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MEAE), the French Polar Institute Paul-Émile Victor (IPEV), the Center for the Study of the First Americans (CSFA) of Texas A&M University, Elfrieda Frank Foundation, CNRS laboratory UMR 8096 Archaeology of the Americas and CNRS laboratory UMR 7055 Prehistory and Technology.