The Organization of Novaculite Tool Production: Quarry-Workshop Debitage Comparisons

Arkansas novaculite, outcropping in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma, has been an important regional lithic resource for thousands of years. Because of the stone’s durability, by-products of past novaculite procurement and tool production and use activities litter the landscape in southwest Arkansas. Recent work situates novaculite quarries in the broader context of tool production and exchange systems. This article focuses on the organization of tool production, and explores analytical techniques that can be used to identify spatial separation of the lithic reduction process between quarry, workshop, and habitation sites

Current Research: Update on the Hodges Collection of Native American Artifacts

During the 1930s and 1940s, Thomas and Charlotte Hodges of Bismarck, Arkansas, surface collected and excavated artifacts from archaeological sites in Arkansas. Most came from ancestral Caddo sites in the Middle Ouachita River valley in Clark and Hot Spring counties, with a small portion originating from Southeast Arkansas sites. The Hodgeses, along with Vere Huddleston and Robert Proctor of Arkadelphia, were amateur archeologists at a time when there were few professional archeologists working in the state. Philip Phillips of Harvard University photographed some of the Hodges and Huddleston collections during his 1939 Ouachita River Valley survey, and Alex Krieger from the University of Texas photographed artifacts from the Hodges, Huddleston, and Proctor collections, using some to illustrate a typology of Caddo pottery that we still employ today

Heat Treatment of Lithic Raw Materials: Archaeological Detection and Technological Interpretation

A lithic technology consists of a set of techniques for shaping and working stone, and a knowledge of the properties and characteristics of the materials utilized. Lithic technology is the foundation of non-metallurgical cultures; stone is directly used in making many types of stone tools as well as indirectly in fashioning tools from other substances. Lithic technology is an important aspect for the archaeologist to study, if only for the practical consideration that on most prehistoric sites, stone tools and debitage are the only material culture preserved. Reconstruction of the lithic system aids not only in the technological interpretation of a prehistoric society. As technology is interconnected with other aspects of culture, it can be used to infer spatial patterning of activities, connections between groups through the study of long distance trade in lithic raw materials, and aspects of social organization. This paper is concerned with one facet of lithic technology. Because a knowledge of the working properties of lithic raw materials is prerequisite to the effective manufacture and use of stone tools, changes in the characteristics of the stone will cause concurrent changes in the rest of the technology. Heat treatment is the intentional alteration of properties of stone through controlled heating and cooling. These physical changes are exploited by selectively heating raw materials to allow the more efficient manufacture and subsequent use of tools. Heat treatment can be used to change a poor quality stone into a more workable material. In particular, heating increases the ease and control of knapping. Soft percussion and pressure flaking techniques may be used on a stone which would be difficult to flake in the natural state. Controlled knapping of heat altered material produces larger forms, in general, than knapping of similar forms of untreated material. Heated material may be flaked to a thinner tool edge, and the resultant tool may therefore be more efficient for cutting tasks. Heat treatment of lithic raw materials thus redefines the local resources deemed usable by the flintknapper, and increases the control and sophistication of the technology

Two Shell Gorgets from Southwest Arkansas

Recently, there has been great interest in marine shell gorgets from the Mississippian period Southeast, not only in identifying styles or types and their geographic distributions, but in refining the chronology of engraved shell gorgets and other artwork. There have also been new studies looking at iconography of the engraved shell art, such as Reilly’s work on the petaloid motif on Spiro shell cups as a locative that indicates a celestial location for depicted objects, individuals, or events, and Lankford’s examination of Cox Mound and Hixon style gorgets as cosmological models portrayed on shell in plan and profile

Update on Recent Activities at the Arkansas Archeological Survey’s Henderson State University Research Station in Arkadelphia

The Arkansas Archeological Survey’s Henderson State University Research Station (ARAS/HSU) has been active with several small field projects this year, as well as on-going work in the lab. In February and March 2016, Mary Beth Trubitt and Katie Leslie advised Hot Springs National Park personnel on placement of four soil moisture monitors so as to avoid cultural features at 3GA22, a significant novaculite quarry with prehistoric and historic components. In the process, we were able to map additional quarry features, most of which are associated with early twentieth century whetstone procurement. Our fieldwork and documentation resulted in extending the site boundaries. Eight shovel tests were excavated during the park’s installation of soil monitoring equipment. This represents the first subsurface archeological testing at this quarry. The novaculite debris from shovel tests included quarry waste and natural talus, but few flakes and no tools or diagnostic artifacts were found. After analysis of lithic debris, a report was prepared that outlines past research on the site and its significance, and summarizes the results of the project

Mapping a Novaculite Quarry in Hot Springs National Park

Novaculite quarries in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma were created through largescale extraction of lithic raw materials, used for stone tools by Caddos and other Native Americans over the past 11,000 years and in recent centuries by Euro-Americans for whetstones. Quarry sites are characterized by surface features like large pits. trenches, battered boulders, and debris piles. This article summarizes the results of an Arkansas Archeological Survey research project that described and mapped surface features at one site (3GA22J to provide a better understanding of the problems and potential of documenting novaculite quarries

Current Research at Arkansas Archeological Survey’s Henderson State University Research Station

During 2017, the Arkansas Archeological Survey celebrated its 50th anniversary with a series of website postings (http://archeology.uark.edu/who-we-are/50moments/), a forum at the annual meeting of the Arkansas Archeological Society, and a symposium at the annual Southeastern Archaeological Conference in Tulsa. In addition, the Survey made strides in documenting and archiving its history and collections. The Survey’s Henderson State University (HSU) Research Station in Arkadelphia continued to inventory curated artifact collections and scan older paper records and color slides. Trubitt and Cinotto, assisted by volunteers during weekly Archeology Lab Days, are updating the station’s curated collections database with artifact counts and weights, and using identified diagnostic artifacts to revise temporal information in the AMASDA state site files database. We are also adding new information on novaculite projectile point distributions to the “Arkansas Novaculite” website (http://archeology.uark.edu/novaculite/index.html) database. Ultimately, the novaculite distribution map will be expanded to create maps for each time period. This attention to the station’s curated collections inventory has sparked several new projects. We inventoried over 10,000 artifacts from 1973 testing at the Spanish Diggings site (3GA48) in Garland County, the largest of the Ouachita Mountains novaculite quarries. Novaculite debris from this quarry can now be compared with excavated samples of chipping debris and in-process pieces from other quarries and habitation sites. Diagnostic dart points (Marshall and Gary, var. Gary) indicate use of the quarry at least during the Middle and Late Archaic and Early Woodland periods (ca. 6000-200 B.C.)

A Preliminary Comparison of Two Caddo Mound Sites in Southwest Arkansas

Previous Arkansas Archeological Survey excavations at the Hedges site in the Ouachita River valley and the Hughes site in the Saline River valley uncovered evidence of burned structures adjacent to the mounds. An overview of the artifact analyses indicates that the sites were roughly contemporaneous, with intensive use by ancestral Caddo Indians during the Late Caddo period, between the AD 1400s and 1600s. This presentation summarizes the research .ftndings to emphasize comparisons in timing, activities, and community plans

Current Research: Archiving our History, Publishing Results: Current Research at the Arkansas Archeological Survey\u27s Henderson State University Research Station

At the Arkansas Archeological Survey\u27s Henderson State University (HSU) Research Station, we continue to inventory curated artifact collections. The research station has been on the HSU campus in Arkadelphia since 1967, and our collections include artifacts, photographs, maps, and field and lab records from projects as well as artifact donations from local residents. Field notes and lab forms have been scanned and archived on the server, and we are in the process of scanning the station\u27s collection of 14,000 color slides. Assisted by volunteers, we have been inventorying artifacts, updating station databases, and submitting site revisit forms to the Registrar\u27s Office. This inventory project has spurred new research and efforts to disseminate results of older field investigations

Reconstructing Ancient Foodways at the Jones Mill Site (3HS28), Hot Spring County, Arkansas

Analyses of botanical and faunal samples and a new radiocarbon date provide a detailed picture of Indian foodways at the Jones Mill site on the Ouachita River in Arkansas. Hunting, plant processing, and fishing with nets is seen from Middle Archaic artifacts and features. Burned hickory nutshell found among clusters of fire-cracked rock shows the importance of nut masts as food between 6000-4300 B.C. By 1450 A.D., a more substantial community of people lived at Jones Mill. Refuse associated with traces of a Caddo period house provided direct evidence for the cultivation of maize and native Eastern Complex starchy seed crops and procurement of select wild plants and animals for food