Basketmaker II Lithic Technology and Mobility Patterns on Cedar Mesa, Southeast Utah

Abstract

Recent literature suggests that a shift to a more sedentary settlement strategy is likely to be accompanied by shifts in the organization of lithic technology. These include a decline in standardized core reduction and formal tool reduction and an increase in unstandardized core reduction and expedient flake tool production. To determine whether this trend occurred on Cedar Mesa, technological characteristics of late Basketmaker II assemblages were compared with those of Basketmaker III and Pueblo II-III assemblages. These comparisons indicated no decline in formal tool production and only moderate increases in unstandardized core reduction through time, suggesting that there may have been little change in residential mobility between Basketmaker II and Pueblo II-III. These results are evaluated in relation to other lines of evidence that also suggest that Basketmaker II adaptation was more similar to Puebioan adaptations than previously recognized.