Paleoindian Technology in Beringia— A Technological and Morphological Analysis of the Northern Fluted-Point Complex

This project is the first comprehensive analysis of fluted projectile points found across arctic North America and encompasses three levels of analysis that increase in scope geographically, methodologically, and theoretically. The start of the project served to develop an understanding of the technological organization represented at the first archaeological site to provide a clear radiocarbon record for fluted points in Alaska, Serpentine Hot Springs. The fluted-point collection from Serpentine was then used as a benchmark to compare the greater collection of fluted-points found across northern Alaska and Yukon and understand whether they represent a cohesive complex, and the technological risk and adaptive role associated with fluted-point use in the late Pleistocene Arctic. Finally, an expanded technological and morphological analysis comparing northern fluted points to other fluted-point forms found throughout North America was conducted to investigate whether convergence or cultural transmission was responsible for the presence of fluted-point technology in the far north. The first phase of the project consisted of an assemblage level analysis of the lithic collection recovered from the Serpentine Fluted-point Site. The site contained buried fluted projectile-point fragments, an associated lithic assemblage, and charcoal-rich cultural features AMS-radiocarbon dated to approximately 12,000 calendar years before present, placing it within a Paleoindian timeframe. Interpretation of the technological organization used by the site’s occupants provides a glimpse of a logistical system of mobility practiced by Paleoindian groups in the Arctic.\n\nThe second phase of the project consisted of a technological and morphological analysis of 51 northern fluted points that included metric, non-metric, and qualitative variables, which were statistically evaluated and compared to a collection of 46 Folsom artifacts. A new approach to geometric morphometrics was developed to evaluate variability in point outline shape, which allowed the analysis to focus solely on fluted-point basal morphology. Results confirm that northern fluted points represent a cohesive technological strategy and may have served as a risk-management system promoting ease-of-replacement-after-failure to offset transport costs and reduce risk during long-distance travel.\n\nThe final phase of the project featured a geometric morphometric shape analysis of 200 fluted points and point fragments, representing the Northern Fluted Complex and fluted points from further south in Canada, the Great Plains, and northeastern United States, to investigate the origin of northern fluted points. Results identified geographic patterns in basal projectile-point morphology and technology suggesting that fluting technology was not independently invented in the north, but originated proximately from the Ice-Free Corridor and ultimately from Clovis. Northern fluted-point technology was culturally transmitted from the south and variability introduced during this process resulted in a distinct arctic variant of Paleoindian fluted-point technology: the Northern Fluted Complex.\n\nThis new form of fluted projectile point is unique to the Arctic, yet evident of cultural continuity and a Paleoindian adaptation that spread throughout North America at the end of the last ice age.

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