Plainview Lithic Technology and the Late Paleoindian Social Organization in the Western Great Lakes

by Daniel M. Winkler
Abstract of Doctoral Dissertation
Department of Anthropology
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
May 2011

The following dissertation is focused upon use of Plainview lithic technology as represented by lithic debitage and tools at the Dalles site (47IA374) and the Kelly North Tract at Carcajou Point (47JE02) in southern Wisconsin.  This work takes an assemblage approach to understanding the structure of the lithic economy in use at these sites.  The primary reason to examine not only tools, but the broader aspects of lithic reduction strategies at this site is to examine Paleoindian mobility, site structure, household makeup, and ritual in the western Great Lakes during the early Holocene (circa 8600 B.P.).  Since very few sites from this period have been scientifically excavated in the western Great Lakes, the Dalles site and the Kelly North Tract offer an opportunity to provide useful information about the lithic economies of these groups.

The Dalles site was excavated and reported by Overstreet et al. 2005.  Investigations at the site yielded diagnostic artifacts and dates from an occupation assignable to the Plainview tradition.  The site is located in an environment containing abundant lithic resources, including cobbles and pebbles of Galena chert found in a streambed crosscutting the site.   The Kelly North Tract was excavated and reported on by Jeske et al. (2002 and 2003).  The site also contained diagnostic Plainview artifacts.  The site is located in a chert poor environment, with sporadic pebbles and cobbles of chert contained within the glacial till in the region.  Current studies in the western Great Lakes have focused on the hafted bifaces and tools produced by groups at the late Pleistocene/early Holocene transition.  In contrast, this dissertation is focused on the structure of the lithic economy, based on the debitage from the Dalles site and the Kelly North Tract using multiple lithic schemes including mass analysis and individual debitage analysis to determine how Plainview groups in the western Great Lakes created, modified, and maintained their tool kits in different environments.