Clovis through Big Sandy Technological Response to the Younger Dryas in Northern Alabama

ABSTRACT

Kuhn and Miller (2015) suggest that changes in projectile point life histories could result from (a) increased replacement costs due to limited raw material access, or (b) a decline in average hunting returns. In northern Alabama, where raw material access can be held constant, we use variation in biotic structures to make predictions for life histories of Clovis to Big Sandy projectile points over the course of the Younger Dryas (12,900–11,700 calendar years ago). Then, using data from the Alabama Paleo Point Survey and private collections, we find a decrease in projectile point size through time, and fluctuations in resharpening. These trends follow changes in forest structure, average prey size, and hunting returns. We conclude that there are no abrupt technological changes coeval with the Younger Dryas onset. However, with the Younger Dryas terminus and subsequent Holocene warming, foragers in northern Alabama made significant changes in projectile point technology.

KEYWORDS:

• Human behavioral ecology
• lithic technology
• technological organization
• marginal value theorem
• hunter-gatherers

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, thanks are warranted for the efforts of the Eugene Futato, Steven Meredith, Ryan Parish, Richard L. Kilborn, and many other professional and avocational archaeologists alike who made research like this possible through years of collecting data on stone tools across Alabama. The authors would also like to thank Todd A. Surovell for making thoughtful comments on an earlier draft of this paper and Scott Jones for the invitation to present in his 2019 Southeastern Archaeological Conference symposium.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robert A. Barlow

Robert A. Barlow obtained his MA in applied anthropology at Mississippi State University in 2019. He is currently a PhD student at the University of Wyoming. His research focuses on evolutionary, ecological, and economic approaches to hunter-gatherer archaeology in the American Southeast and West.

D. Shane Miller

D. Shane Miller earned his PhD in 2014 at the University of Arizona, and he now serves as an Associate Professor at Mississippi State University. His research interests include the archaeology of eastern North America, hunter-gatherers, lithic technology, geoarchaeology, and ecological anthropology.