Anthropology 2231F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Lithic Reduction, Paleo-Indians
Document Summary
Great basin: oregon, idaho, utah, nevada, new mexico. Term coined by jesse jennings; no debated by what it means: archaic of the west believed to be fairly similar to the archaic in the east. Appearance of plant processing tools: mortars (metates) and grinding stones (manos, more important part of their diet (different from east) Expedient tools: used then thrown away, chipped stone tools. Appearance of ground-stone tools: axes, etc, not as elaborate as the ones in the east, these are much more functional tools than works of art created in the east. Use of local stones: not moving materials over long distances like they were before. Time period of settling in to take advantage of larger number of resources: appearance of plant processing tools suggests reliance on more plant foods, still hunter-gatherers, still no agriculture, no ceramics.