A Notch More Understanding:  Evaluation of Artifact Categorization Through the Case Study of an Unfamiliar Object

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/qv33rz37d

Abstract

Inferring uses for tools based on morphology and Western knowledge alone can lead not only to incorrect assumptions about past cultures, but can also leave out information and understanding of those cultures’ modern descendants and skew results of further research. For example, a notched bone object found at an ancestral Pawnee/Arikara site in N.E. Nebraska occupied ca. 1250-1350 AD, could have been used for a variety of tasks, including as a rasp or pottery paddle, but when labeled in site reports as a “miscellaneous notched bone”, or as the incorrect tool, errors are introduced. My research will explore how experimental microwear replication and comparative analysis, temporal/spatial analysis, and expertise from the Pawnee THPO and other bone microwear experts can help us to learn more about an unidentified notched bone object found at site 25BD1. Experiments produced temporal information that aligns with other researchers, and microwear from manufacture and rasp use is distinct. Next steps for this kind of method would be to either compare to the existing object, or apply these methods to a different unfamiliar object.

Creator