Year of Award

2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Arts (MA)

Degree Name

Anthropology (Cultural Heritage Option)

Department or School/College

Department of Anthropology

Committee Chair

Dr. Douglas MacDonald

Commitee Members

Dr. Anna Prenitss, Dr. Cheyenne Laue

Keywords

Archaeology, Lithic Analysis, Hunter-gatherer, Stone tools, Bifacial technology, Yellowstone National Park

Subject Categories

Archaeological Anthropology

Abstract

48YE240 within the Hayden Valley of Yellowstone National Park is a pre-contact hunter-gatherer site recorded on two separate terraces along the Yellowstone River. This site and the two terraces are divided by the Grand Loop Road. The higher terrace is west of the road, while the lower terrace is east of the road, adjacent to the Yellowstone River. The lower terrace was excavated in 1999 and included a hearth feature dating to the Middle Archaic. The higher terrace was excavated in 2020 and contained intact cultural deposits. This thesis presents a lithic analysis of the assemblage recovered from the higher terrace at 48YE240, focusing on identifying the technological organization at the site. It addresses the relationship between the two terraces while testing two hypotheses regarding the composition of hunter-gatherer toolkits. The hypotheses proposed in this thesis examine hunter-gatherer preferences for incorporating bifacial technologies into their toolkits and how their adaptations to the Hayden Valley have influenced these decisions. The results of this analysis indicate that the higher terrace occupation dates to the Early Archaic. This makes 48YE240 one of the few Early Archaic sites located in the Hayden Valley. The analysis supported the second hypothesis, which suggested the incorporation of task-specific curated bifaces in the toolkit, while also concluding that the inhabitants of the site maintained tethered mobility. This thesis concludes that by incorporating task-specific curated tools into their toolkits, the hunter-gatherers had an intimate understanding of their environment. This understanding of their environment could be the result of their tethered mobility pattern along the Yellowstone River. Ultimately, hunter-gatherers’ toolkits can provide implications on how they have adapted to their environment and the predictability of that environment.

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