Maney Publishing The Lamb Site: A Pioneering Clovis Encampment by Richard Michael Gramly Review by: Juliet E. Morrow Lithic Technology, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Fall 2001), pp. 157-159 Published by: Maney Publishing Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23273505 . Accessed: 15/06/2014 01:07 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. . Maney Publishing is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Lithic Technology. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 195.34.79.176 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:07:59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=maney http://www.jstor.org/stable/23273505?origin=JSTOR-pdf http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp Bookreviews 151 REFERENCES Clarke, David L. Analytical Archaeology. Methuen & Co. Ltd., London. Cook, Harold J. New Geological and Palaeolontological Evidence Bearing on the Antiquity of Mankind in America. Natural His tory 27: 240-247. Crabtree, Don E. A Stoneworker's Approach to Analyz ing and Replicating the Lindenmeier Folsom. Tebiwa 9: 3-39. Figgins, Jesse Dade The Antiquity of Man in America. Natural History 27: 229-239. Jodry, Margaret A. The Possible Design of Folsom Ultra thin Bifaces as Fillet Knives for Jerky Production. Current Research in the Pleistocene 15: 75-77. Kay, Marvin Microwear Analysis of Some Clovis and Experimental Chipped Stone Tools. In Stone Tools: Theoretical Insights into Human Prehistory, edited by G. H. Odell, pp. 315-344. Plenum Press, New York. Knudson, Ruthann Organisational Variability in Late Paleo-Indian Assemblages. Doc toral dissertation, Washington State University, Pullman. University Mi crofilms {order 74-41 ii}, Ann Arbor, MI. Dissertation Abstracts Interna tional 34(8), 1974. Inference and Imposition in Lithic Analysis. In Lithic Use-Wear Analy sis, edited by B. Hayden, pp. 269-279. Academic Press, NY. Organizational Variability in Late Paleo-Indian Assemblages. Wash ington State University. Laboratory of Anthropology, Reports of Investiga tion, No, 60, Pullman. Lemonnier, Pierre Elements for an Anthropology of Technology. Anthropological Papers, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Schiffer, Michael Archaeological Context and Systematic Context. American Antiquity 37: 156-165. Sellet, Frederic Chaine Operatoire-. the Concept and Its Application. Lithic Technology 18: 106-112. Vaughan, Patrick C. 1985 Use-Wear Analysis of Flaked Stone Tools. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Artifact Life Histories: Cultural Tem plates, Typology, Evidence and Infer ence. In Primitive Art and Technol ogy, pp. 7-15. Archeoloeical Associa tion, Department of Archeology, Uni versity of Calgary, Alberta. Wheat, Joe Ben The Lamb Site: A Pioneering Clovis Encamp ment by Richard Michael Gramly. Persimmon Press, 1999. Kenmore, New York 142x7. 108 pag es, incl. References, 37 figures, 53 plates, two ap pendices, index. Reviewed by Juliet E. Morrow, Arkansas Archeo logical Survey, P.O. Box 820, Jonesboro, AK 72467. This privately published book documents one of the most important Early Paleoindian sites in North America. As is the case for most known Paleoindian sites, Lamb was discovered by a non professional archaeologist and the author does a good job of documenting the events leading up to his own investigation of the site in Chapter I. Chapter II describes the site location on the northern margin of a late glacial kettle, several hundred feet south of a small creek and between two east-west trending glacial moraines. The nearest suitable chert outcrops (Onondaga) are about 15 km north of the site. Although the local creek contains Onondaga and other chert gravels, these are reportedly not large enough to have manufactured bifaces as large as those from the Lamb site. Brief discussions of five previously known Early Paleoindian-age sites (Arc, Kilmer, Hiscock, Hinsdale School, and Divers Lake), as well as accompanying photographs of some key diagnostic artifacts, give the reader a thumbnail sketch of the Paleo scene in western New York. Chapter III presents the history of Gramly's investigations or the Lamb site. It is not at all clear what the research design was or what exca This content downloaded from 195.34.79.176 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:07:59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp 158 Lithtc Technoloau .vol.26.no2 vation methods were utilized. One must rely on statements scattered throughout the book, as well as on photographs and maps, to determine basic information such as why and how the investiga tions proceeded. Artifact provenience was not generally recorded during the excavation, but sur face artifacts were apparently measured in relation to the site grid. Unfortunately, specific proven ience information is not presented in the book. identified to a specific raw material type is Knife River Flint and this is an error that I discuss be low. An inventory of all the artifacts from the ex cavation, ideally with raw material identifications that are as specific as possible, would have al lowed for comparisons with other Early Paleoin dian assemblages. A backhoe trench was excavated across the margin of the pond/kettle adjacent to the site. Bakhoe trenching enabled the recovery of sedi ment samples for pollen analysis. A stratigraphic profile of this trench would have been helpful in this section of the book. Apparently, the basal stratum of the trench profile was gray clay over lain by one meter of peat, which was, in turn, un derlain by what was described as "muck." Wood from the peat-clay interface (not in association with any cultural material) yielded a late Pleisto cene age date. Norton G. Miller conducted a preliminary analysis of plant macro-fossils and pollen from a sediment sample taken at a depth of about a meter. Miller's results are presented in Appendix 2. Macrobotanical specimens are listed, but not quantified. Arboreal pollen was domi nated by spruce, but the arboreal and non-arbore al pollen considered together indicate a relatively open environment. Three artifact concentrations are apparent within the excavated area at the Lamb site, and these are discussed briefly in Chapter IV, entitled "Artifact Clusters." One of these clusters, desig nated A, was interpreted as a "Clovis workshop." Its discovery prompted farther excavations near the kettle edge, where the largest area of high ar tifact density ( 10 x 14 m) within the total excavat ed area occurred. Cluster C contained one of the only known Early Paleoindian caches in the East ern United States. This cache could be consid ered the most significant aspect of the Lamb site, but the reader cannot really appreciate this until approximately one-third of the way through the book. One interpretation offered for the 18 in tact tools recovered from this concentration is that it may represent a burial offering. Although this is possible, associated physical evidence is not present. Chapter V, "Artifacts and Their Raw Materi als," discusses several categories of artifacts (fluted points, bifaces, unifaces, unshaped flake tools, and debitage), but provides specific raw material identifications for few of them â not even the formal fluted bifaces. The only artifact that is The majority of finished hafted bifaces from the site are Early Paleoindian Gainey points. The presence of Gainey points made of non-local chert may indicate the arrival of a group from the west and this is why Gramly interprets the site as a "pioneering encampment." The results of Jack Holland's raw material analysis of fluted bifaces and debitage are relegated to two tables that ap arently form Appendix I (although it is not la eled as such). The vast majority of debitage was identified as locally available Onondaga chert, yet all of the fluted bifaces from the site were identi fied as non-local chert such as Wyandotte, Hol land, Flint Ridge, and Upper Mercer. This dif ference in raw material utilization appears signifi cant, but is not explored in any detail. One of the non-local fluted bifaces was identi fied as Knife River Flint. This identification was challenged by Dr. Kenneth Tankersley in a paper presented at a Plains Anthropological Conference several years ago; there are apparently several east ern cherts that look quite similar to Knife River Flint (Tankersley 1991). Exotic Flint Ridge chert from Ohio also occurred in the form of one end scraper, twelve biface fragments, and three flakes. Except for one biface fragment, all artifacts from the Lamb site were recovered from the plowzone. The fluted projectile point style represented at the Lamb site is metrically and morphologically Gainey. The differences between most Gainey and Clovis points are fairly striking; there is a small degree of overlap for some metric and mor phological attributes, but many complete, fluted points that have not been extensively resharpened or repaired can often be classified as one type or another. I think of these "types" as points on a continuum, ever evolving over time and space. Clovis points occur throughout much of North and Central America, but have not yet been known to occur in far northeastern United States. The extreme Northeast is home to a different sort of fluted point tradition which, based on dates from the Debert site, probably post-dates Clovis. On evidence from technology and geomorpholo gy, it is likely that Gainey points were made in the Eastern Woodlands at about the same time as Folsom points on the Great Plains, i.e., post This content downloaded from 195.34.79.176 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:07:59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp Baaiffigasgg 152 io,90o B.P. Gramly classifies the narrow fluted bifaces as "fluted projectile points" and the comparatively wider and more blunt-tipped fluted bifaces as "fluted knives." It is not clear what criteria, oth er than shape, were used to classify them. Formal use-wear analysis was not conducted on any of the tools, although this could provide valuable insight on activities being practiced and on materials that may have been processed with the tools. "Silica phytolith sheen," observed on some of the fluted bifaces from Lamb, is attributed to the cutting of plants. However, it may be more con sistent with bag wear or transport abrasion, since we know that these bifaces were transported over long distances. I have observed small shiny patch es in the middle of flake scars and polished flake scar crests on points and bifaces from the Anzick (Montana), Rummels-Maske (Iowa), and East Wenatchee (Washington) sites, as well as from the "Fenn" cache bifaces. The fluted preforms from the Lamb site are not fluted at all; they are actually small bifaces. Gramly himself has difficulty offering an explana tion for their small size. They seem to be too small to be fluted point preforms. Some of these bifaces occur in Cluster C, which contained the cache. It is interesting that two early burial sites that have produced many similar small bifaces in clude the Anzick Clovis burial and the Sloan Dal ton cemetery. I don't agree with many of Gramly's interpre tations; however, he deserves credit for docu menting this important site and summarizing, al beit in a cursory form, his work there. In the last decade archaeology has witnessed an explosion of interest in Paleoindian period research from me dia coverage of the Kennewick Man controversy, the privately funded 1999 Clovis and Beyond con ference, and the auctioning of artifacts via the In ternet, among other things. The convergence of these events has resulted in an ever increasing public audience hungry for Paleoindian archaeol ogy. Because Gramly's book is well illustrated and contains many artifact photos, this public audi ence, especially artifact collectors, will probably enjoy it. Val Waldorfs superb pen and ink arti fact illustrations are certainly its most redeeming aspect. Hopefully, there will be future analyses and published reports of the Early Paleoindian ar tifacts from the Lamb site. REFERENCE Tankersley, Kenneth B. Clovis Colonization. A View from the Knife River. Paper presented at the 49th Plains Anthropological Confer ence. Lawrence, Kansas. The Mousterian Site ofRas el-Kelb, Leba non, edited by Lorraine Copeland and Norah Molo ney. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 706. British Archaeological Reports, Ox ford. 1998. 190 pages. Reviewed by Joseph E. Beaver, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721. The cave site of Ras el-Kelb, located on the Lebanese coast some 15 km north of Beirut, was excavated in 1959 by Dorothy and Germaine Henri-Martin as a salvage operation during the construction of a highway along the coast. Exca vations were carried out in a tunnel being blasted through the promontory in which the cave is situ ated and along a railway line around the outside of the promontory the construction of which had previously truncated part of the deposit. The ill nesses and deaths of the excavators, as well as un rest in Lebanon, conspired to prevent analysis or publication for many years. Analyses were later undertaken by other scholars, particularly Lor raine Copeland. Eventually, it was decided to publish what was available, and this volume was the eventual result. For these reasons, the volume is more a compilation of analyses (some done dur ing the late 1970s) of various data types than an integrated multidisciplinary study. The first chapter consists of an English transla tion of one of the excavators' preliminary reports (Garrod and Henri-Martin 1961). Like most pre liminary reports, it was clearly intended as a brief description of the work that nad been done, rath er than a report of the results of the investiga tions. Nonetheless, the inclusion of a potentially difficult-to-obtain publication (the report was originally published in the bulletin of the Beirut Museum, Bulletin du Musee de Beyrouth) is welcome, and provides useful historical context and infor mation about the excavations. This content downloaded from 195.34.79.176 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:07:59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp Article Contents p. 157 p. 158 p. 159 Issue Table of Contents Lithic Technology, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Fall 2001), pp. 89-163 Front Matter EDITOR'S LAIR [pp. 89-91] ERRATUM: THE REFITTING OF LITHICS FROM UNIT 4C, AREA Q2/D EXCAVATIONS AT BOXGROVE, WEST SUSSEX, ENGLAND [pp. 91-91] COMMUNICATIONS Flint Seminar, Södra Sallerup, Sweden [pp. 92-93] CURRENT RESEARCH: CURRENT TRENDS IN LITHIC TECHNOLOGY IN ARGENTINA [pp. 94-104] AN ACTUALISTIC STUDY OF DORSALLY PLAIN FLAKES: A TECHNOLOGICAL NOTE [pp. 105-117] INDOOR/OUTDOOR FLINT KNAPPING AND MINUTE DEBITAGE REMAINS: THE EVIDENCE FROM THE OHALO II SUBMERGED CAMP (19.5 KY, JORDAN VALLEY) [pp. 118-137] AN EXPEDIENT LITHIC TECHNOLOGY IN NORTHERN LUZON (PHILIPPINES) [pp. 138-152] BOOK REVIEWS Review: untitled [pp. 153-155] Review: untitled [pp. 155-157] Review: untitled [pp. 157-159] Review: untitled [pp. 159-161] Review: untitled [pp. 161-163] Back Matter