Debitage Assemblages Research Articles

Debitage Analysis and Archaeological Interpretation

AbstractThe systematic study of chipped stone debitage provides important information about prehistoric lithic technology. However, the results of most debitage analyses are unconvincing because of questionable assumptions and inherent flaws in the typologies used to classify the material. After briefly reviewing these problems, we present an alternative approach that does not rely on the presumed technological origins of individual artifacts as the basis for debitage classification and interpretation. An important element of this approach is a typology composed of interpretation-free and mutually exclusive debitage categories. The derivation of this typology is described and the utility of the approach is demonstrated with two Arizona case studies. The TEP St. Johns project provides new data and interpretations about Archaic Period technological and settlement changes while the Pitiful Flats study illustrates how differences in functional and organizational factors affect debitage assemblage variability.

Sur les industries à lames de Qatar

In Qatar some open air sites have given blade debitage assemblages knapped in order to be blanks for tanged arrowheads ofa classical type in the Near-East from the 8th mulennium. Description of one of these workshops.