EXPLORING THE FUNCTION AND ADAPTIVE CONTEXT OF PALEO-ARCTIC PROJECTILE POINTS A Dissertation by JOSHUA JAMES LYNCH Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Ted Goebel Committee Members, Kelly E. Graf Mike Waters Richard VanderHoek Head of Department, Darryl de Ruiter December 2020 Major Subject: Anthropology Copyright 2020 Joshua J. Lynch ABSTRACT This dissertation presents new data on projectile point variability, technological organization, and site distribution in Upper Paleolithic Siberia and late Pleistocene/early Holocene Beringia, relating projectile point morphology, weapon systems, use wear data, and site assemblage variability to functional and cultural application spaces of prehistoric technologies. This research is divided into three related articles, first focusing on experimental investigations of the relationships between Beringian projectile point forms and prehistoric weapon systems. Lithic bifacial, simple osseous, and composite projectile point forms observed in the Beringian record are tested as arming elements of three weapon-delivery systems allowing for quantitative comparing of efficiency and lethality performances for each individual combination of weapon system and projectile-point morphology. Results indicate lithic bifacial and composite projectile points are most effective hafted as spear thrower points and hand-thrust spear tips, respectively. Better defined functional characterizations of prehistoric hunting toolkits furthers understandings of adaptive responses to resource fluctuation, landscape use, and technological organization. Next, this dissertation updates the geochronology and occupation record of the Blair Lakes Archaeological District, specifically the north shore of Blair Lake south, to contribute to our understanding of understudied landscapes in interior Alaska. Testing and excavation results confirm regional occupations that began nearly 11,000 calendar ii years ago and continued through the historic period. Together these results demonstrate the significance of the Blair Lakes Archaeological District and enhance our understanding of Holocene technological variability, site distribution, mobility, and landscape use in interior Alaska. This research concludes with a comparative morphological and use wear analysis of 11 organic artifact assemblages from Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic sites across Siberia and Beringia, focusing on the relationships between raw material, point morphology, and function. Results show that raw material significantly influences point morphology, morphological variability increases during the late Upper Paleolithic, and organic artifacts offer an avenue for exploring prehistoric cultural application spaces. Ultimately, this dissertation provides insight into functional and cultural application spaces of Beringian projectile points, providing a better understanding of prehistoric hunting tool kits and technological organization of Beringian foragers and the relation of these adaptations to changing ecological conditions. iii DEDICATION To my mothers Lori and Arlene Green, my father Brett Lynch, my sister Jessica, and to my incomparable wife Angela. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research owes greatly to many people who were willing to contribute their time, knowledge, and expertise to me. Special thanks to Monty Rodgers, Michael Miller, Eugene Gryba, and Richard VanderHoek for their guidance and assistance in the production of experimental projectile points and weapons systems used in Section 2. I am extremely grateful to Heather and Chuck Hardy who were willing to get cold and dirty at a moment’s notice to rigorously collect data during experimental testing. The U.S. Army Garrison Alaska graciously provided access to sites presented in Section 3 on Fort Wainwright for study and evaluation. I would like to thank the Texas A&M Field Schools (2013 and 2014) and Center for the Environmental Management of Military Lands crews (2013, 2014, 2015) that participated in the survey and excavation of these sites. I would specifically like to thank Julie Esdale and Elizabeth Cook, the best bosses and Alaskan moms I could ask for. Thank you to Bjarne Gronnow, Gennady Khlopachev, Mikhail Konstantinov, Vladimir Pitulko, Aleksei Teten’kin, and Sergei Vasil'ev for being wonderful collaborators and hosts. My understanding of Beringia has been forever changed by my experiences traveling for the research presented in Section 4. I also thank the Center for the Study of the First Americans for training in use wear analysis and access to their microscopy lab early in my graduate career. v In fact, I feel a tremendous gratitude to the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M University for their support throughout graduate school. Special thanks to my graduate committee Chair Dr. Ted Goebel, who has seen more drafts of this work than I can count. Also thank you to my other committee members Dr. Kelly Graf, Dr. Michael Waters, and Dr. Richard VanderHoek for all their advice, support, and for their comments which greatly improved this research. I would like to thank my family, Brett Lynch and Lori and Arlene Green, and my sister Jessica Lynch for their long suffering, patience, and endless support. Finally, to Angela Gore, my wife, I can only offer an inadequate “thank you”. I truly could not have done this without you. vi CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES Contributors This work was supported by a dissertation committee consisting of Dr. Ted Goebel, Dr. Kelly Graf, Dr. Michael Waters of the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M University, and Dr. Richard VanderHoek, Sate Archaeologist and Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer of the State of Alaska. Experimental projectile points tested in Section 2 were created with the assistance of Michael Miller, Eugene Gryba, and Monty Rodgers. George Aguiar of Archipelago Farms, Fairbanks, Alaska graciously provided access to an ideal actualistic target. XRF data reported in Section 3 were collected by Jeff Rasic, Archaeologist and Program Manager of Natural and Cultural Resources at Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. Access to archaeological collections investigated in Section 1V were granted by Bjarne Gronnow, Gennady Khlopachev, Mikhail Konstantinov, Vladimir Pitulko, Aleksei Teten’kin, and Sergei Vasil'ev. Archaeological testing and excavation in the Blair Lakes Archaeological District was supported by the Center for the Environmental Management, Colorado State University, archaeologist Julie Esdale and U. S. Army Alaska Cultural Resource Manager, Elizabeth Cook. All other work conducted for this dissertation was completed independently by Joshua Lynch. vii Funding Sources This dissertation research was supported in part through a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (number 1853977) awarded by the National Science Foundation, as well as through grants from the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M University. In-kind support for field work was provided by the Center for the Environmental Management, Colorado State University. The dissertation’s contents are solely the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Science Foundation or Texas A&M University. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ..................................................................................................................iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. .v CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES .......................................................... .vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................ix LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ .xii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................ ..xvi 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Themes of Research ................................................................................................. 3 The Morphological Variability in Lithic, Osseous, and Composite Technologies in Beringia ............................................................................................ 3 Behavioral Explanations of Projectile Point Variability ................................... 5 The Importance of Experimental Use-wear Studies ........................................ 10 1.2 Research Questions ................................................................................................ 12 1.3 References .............................................................................................................. 15 2. ANCIENT BERINGIAN WEAPON SYSTEMS AND PROJECTILE-POINT VARIABILITY: EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF FUNCTION AND BEHAVIORAL CONTEXTS OF EARLY HUNTING TECHNOLOGY ...................... 30 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 30 2.2 Application Spaces of Ancient Beringian Weapon Systems: Equipping