A Morphometric Assessment of the Intended Function of Cached Clovis Points

A number of functions have been proposed for cached Clovis points. The least complicated hypothesis is that they were intended to arm hunting weapons. It has also been argued that they were produced for use in rituals or in connection with costly signaling displays. Lastly, it has been suggested that some cached Clovis points may have been used as saws. Here we report a study in which we morphometrically compared Clovis points from caches with Clovis points recovered from kill and camp sites to test two predictions of the hypothesis that cached Clovis points were intended to arm hunting weapons: 1) cached points should be the same shape as, but generally larger than, points from kill/camp sites, and 2) cached points and points from kill/camp sites should follow the same allometric trajectory. The results of the analyses are consistent with both predictions and therefore support the hypothesis. A follow-up review of the fit between the results of the analyses and the predictions of the other hypotheses indicates that the analyses support only the hunting equipment hypothesis. We conclude from this that cached Clovis points were likely produced with the intention of using them to arm hunting weapons

Costly Signaling Theory in Archaeology

Why do people engage in seemingly wasteful behaviors and invest in extravagant material displays? Since its introduction into anthropological archaeology two decades ago, costly signaling theory (CST) has been used to provide an answer to this question. With broad origins in biology and social theory, costly signaling theory seeks to provide an evolutionary explanation for why humans engage in seemingly wasteful behaviors. In this chapter, I take stock of costly signaling theory in archaeology by (1) tracing its theoretical origins and history of adoption into anthropological archaeology, (2) highlighting key issues that archaeologists have been wrestling with in order to make CST applicable to the past, (3) discussing the breadth of uses of CST in the recent archaeological literature, and (4) presenting an analytical framework that can make CST more rigorous and in the future. Despite persistent doubts about the explanatory utility of CST, the study of signaling from an evolutionary perspective remains a key aspect of evolutionary archaeology