A multivariate perspective on lithic technological organization at Housepit 54, Bridge River Site (EeRl4), British Columbia

Abstract

The management of lithic raw materials is a significant concern to anthropological archaeologists interested in hunter-gatherer socio-economies. A wide range of studies have implicated quarry distance, work needs, occupational longevity, and consumer population to variation in tactics for reduction, use, and maintenance of chipped stone tools. Fewer studies have examined socio-political factors in the organization of stone tool technology. This study examines the interactive effects of population, occupational longevity, favored prey, and socio-political complexity on the tactics by which lithic raw materials were managed in a long-lived winter pithouse in North America’s interior Pacific Northwest. Results of bivariate and multivariate analyses implicate variability in toolstone economies as related to different classes of lithic items. Lithic cores and flake tools were more extensively reduced in contexts of productive subsistence economies, high populations, long winter occupations, and material wealth-based inequality. Bifaces were produced and maintained in relation to needs associated with intensity of deer hunting. The creation and maintenance of slate tools was affected at least in part by the intensity of salmon fishing. Combined, these data suggest that the organization of lithic tool technology responded to multiple factors across the lifespan of the house.