An investment index for lithic technology: Implications for investment, mobility, and division of labor on the Colorado Plateau, USA

Abstract

Changes in technological investment may shed light on human responses to social and environmental change, yet these changes are difficult to quantify archaeologically. Here we develop a new technological investment index for examining change in chipped and ground stone tool investment and apply it to understand human behavioral changes during the early Holocene at North Creek Shelter, southern Utah, USA. The findings of this study suggest continued investment in chipped stone technology across the early Holocene, consistent with steady consumption of artiodactyls. Findings also suggest increased investment in ground stone technology, consistent with increased low-return plant resource consumption. Additionally, application of a quantitative model for lithics and mobility demonstrates increased reliance on local toolstone across the early Holocene, suggesting decreased mobility and longer stays at North Creek Shelter. Our results have implications for the division of labor, as some individuals continued to invest in chipped stone tools for hunting unreliable, high-return prey, while others increasingly invested in ground stone tools for processing more reliable, though lower-return, plants, which may have tethered hunter-gatherers to the site.