CHAPTER 9 - The Relationship of Morphological Variation to Hafting Techniques among Paleoindian Endscrapers at the Shawnee Minisink Site

Abstract

In the study of the early Paleoindian period, a site rarely provides a large sample of a specialized artifact type under the conditions of secure provenience and dated context. The extensive endscraper collection from Shawnee Minisink is an exception to the rule and allows an opportunity to gain insight into a significant artifact type. The formal endscraper occupies a unique position within early Paleoindian assemblages as the single unifacial tool to be hafted and curated. The endscraper was the most expensive uniface within a tool kit dominated by unifacial forms and second only to the projectile point in the overall cost of production and maintenance. The generalized nature of the Clovis endscraper can be challenged on several grounds. This chapter discusses the consistencies and variations in the technological attributes of endscrapers as represented at a single place and time.