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Dalton Settlement in the Arkoma Basin of Eastern Oklahoma

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Dalton Settlement in the Arkoma Basin of Eastern Oklahoma Dalton Settlement in the Arkoma Basin of Eastern Oklahoma Jesse A.M. Ballenger University of Oklahoma Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History R.E. Bell Monographs in Anthropology: Number 2 2001 ROBERT E. BELL MONOGRAPHS IN ANTHROPOLOGY SAM NOBLE OKLAHOMA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA, NORMAN, OKLAHOMA NUMBER 2, PAGES 1-57 1 OCTOBER 2001 DALTON SETTLEMENT IN THE ARKOMA BASIN OF EASTERN OKLAHOMA JESSE A.M. BALLENGER Department ofAnthropology, University ofArizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721 Corresponding Author: Jesse A.M. Ballenger Phone: (520) 319-2350 EDITED BY DON G. WYCKOFF AND JASON B. JACKSON © 2001 Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History ISSN: 1530-7042 Cover design by Jesse Ballenger and Patrick Fisher. Text design by Don Wyckoff. Formatted with Adobe PageMaker 6.5® in Times New Roman font. ©200 1 by the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Dalton Settlement in the Arkoma Basin ofEastern Oklahoma iii Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................... .iii Ozark-Ouachita Macroband Hypothesis ..................25 Preface ............................................................. v Arkoma Basin Dalton Sample Descriptions Introduction. ... .. .. 1 and Analysis ............................................................... 26 Environmental Setting ofthe Arkansas Basin ............... 2 The Billy Ross Collection ..................................26 Physiographic Setting ....................................... 2 The McKellips Collection ..................................26 Landscape Evolution. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3 The Dirty Creek Collection .................................27 Paleoenvironments .......................................... 5 Raw Material Use ............................................ 32 Hunter-Gatherer Mobility and the Organization Billy Ross .................................................32 of Lithic Technology........... ............ .............. ................... 7 McKellips .................................................33 Concepts of Hunter-Gatherer Mobility .................. 7 Dirty Creek ....................................................... 34 Concepts of Lithic Technology and Its Functional Diversity of Points ............................ .34 Organization .......................................................... 9 Tool Utility ....................................................34 The Archaeology ofthe Dalton Horizon ..................... 11 Functional Utility ............................................ 35 The Dalton Horizon ........................................... 11 Expended Utility .............................................. 35 Geographic Distribuion... .. .. .................... 12 Residual Utility ............................................ 38 Temporal Position ......................................... 12 Summary.................................................. 38 Adaptation Type ......................................... 13 Interpretation and Summary ...................................40 Dalton Settlement and Mobility ........................... 14 Data Interpretation ...........................................40 Dalton Technological Organization ....................... 18 Summary .......................................................41 Analysis of Dalton Points ................................ 19 Acknowledgments ...............................................42 Dalton Point Diversity ...................................20 References Cited .................................................42 Dalton Point Utility ........................................21 Appendix A: Morse's Dalton Settlement Hypothesis ...................23 Characteristics of the Studied Dalton Points ............. .49 Schiffer's Dalton Settlement Hypothesis .................. 24 iv Dalton Settlement in the Arkoma Basin ofEastern Oklahoma Dalton Settlement in the Arkoma Basin ofEastern Oklahoma v PREFACE We are pleased to publish Jesse Ballenger's research as ferent kinds of settings in the Arkoma Basin, that physi­ the second volume in the Robert E. Bell Monographs in An­ ographic trough that separates the Ozark Plateau on the north thropology series from the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum from the Ouachita Mountains to the south. Because good ofNatural History. Written in partial completion ofthe M.A. records exist on where the artifacts were found, Jesse was degree in Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma, able to compare the collections from different settings in Jesse's study focuses on the sparsely documented artifacts order to study Dalton people's movements through and ofhunting-gathering people who inhabited eastern Oklahoma across the Arkoma Basin. He was also able to do this be­ some 10,000 years ago. This evidence consists largely of cause he examined and recorded the kinds and sources of surface finds of spearpoints, knives, drills, and a few other flint from which the Dalton tools were made. This study of chipped stone tools that are distinctively stylized and simi­ flints, their diverse origins, and prehistoric people's prefer­ lar to artifacts found in unmixed open camps or in stratified ential use of certain stone for particular tools was pioneered deposits from cave and rockshelter deposits in Arkansas, by Dr. Bell in his 1943 M.A. thesis at the University of Chi­ Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina. cago. Archaeologists working in these places have sometimes ques­ tioned whether or not Dalton artifacts really occur as far In preparing this publication, we thank Mr. Jack Ray and west as Oklahoma. Based upon Jesse's compilations, the Drs. Neal Lopinot and Jack Hofman for reviewing the manu­ answer is definitely yes. Moreover, while Oklahoma Dalton script and providing comments that improved it. We also materials are common to landscapes similar to where they thank Patrick Fisher and Paul King of the SNOMNH De­ are found farther east, pollen records indicate that Dalton partment of Computing Systems for working on the cover people frequented Oklahoma landscapes when they were design and programming assistance and Dr. Laurie Vitt, As­ largely grasslands, not the deciduous forests usually associ­ sociate Director of Research and Collections at SNOMNH, ated with Dalton lifeways. for guidance and advice. Finally, we acknowledge an anony­ mous donor whose fmancial support made this series pos­ In several ways, this study is based on ideas advocated sible. by Dr. R. E. Bell. First, Jesse sought out and utilized the artifact collections of responsible avocational archaeologists .Don G. Wyckoff living in eastern Oklahoma. As the founder of the Okla­ Associate Curator of Archaeology homa Anthropological Society, Dr. Bell always believed in Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History the important role that private collections could play if their owners were careful to record the locations where these col­ Jason B. Jackson lections originated. In Jesse's case, he was able to find and Assistant Curator of Ethnology document Dalton collections with proveniences in three dif- Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History J INTRODUCTION This study examines Dalton adaptations in the Arkoma et al. 1996). A shared technology and settlement strategy Basin of eastern Oklahoma. Recognized by their distinc­ between these groups would, on the other hand, identify a tive bifaces, Dalton groups were hunter-gatherers who flour­ uniform adaptive link between Dalton groups in prairie and ished in the Eastern Woodlands and Midwest between 9,900 forest environments. and 10,500 radiocarbon years ago (Goodyear 1982). This study aims to supplement a growing body of Dalton re­ Archaeologists have identified settlement and mobility search by exploring the settlement mobility of Dalton groups strategies as an essential ingredient for understanding cul­ in the early Holocene prairie of eastern Oklahoma. tural adaptations within environmental, economic, and so­ cial constraints. The study of hunter-gatherer settlement The origin of the artifacts used here comprise an impor­ and mobility is reviewed in Part 2. Although early taxono­ tant aspect of this study. Archaeologists have long recog­ mies of hunter-gatherer mobility played an importaant role nized that Dalton groups occupied eastern Oklahoma (Bell in the study of Dalton settlement (i.e., Beardsley et al. 1956), 1958). This evidence, however, is sparse and often over­ more attention is provided to the influential "forager" and shadowed by large or well dated Dalton sites in the Ozark "collector" subsistence and settlement continuum introduced Mountains and central Mississippi River valley (i.e., by Binford (1980). The concepts of expedient and curated Goodyear 1974; Kay 1982; Lopinot et al. 1998; Morse 1997). technologies (Binford 1973), design considerations (Bleed Rather than relying on the elusively buried evidence in east­ 1986), and tool utility (Kuhn 1989) are also reviewed. ern Oklahoma (i.e., Perttula et al. 1994; Wyckoff 1985), this study takes advantage of extant private collections. Col­ The archaeology of the Dalton Horizon is reviewed in lected from the surface by interested avocationalists, these Part 3. Relative to other early Holocene adaptations in the resources play an increasingly important role in archaeol­ Southeast, a rich history of Dalton research has generated a ogy and the study of prehistoric land use. The collections wealth of information relating to these groups' settlement used here come from three localities within the Arkoma Ba­ and mobility. This
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