Carly Salazar
Pronouns: She/Her
Research Mentor(s): Raven Garvey
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Anthropology and Museum of Anthropological Archaeology / LSA
Program: UROP
Session: Session 3 (11:00am – 11:50am)
Authors:
Abstract
This project investigates flint-knapping patterns among projectile points (“arrowheads”) from three archaeological sites in southeastern New Mexico: Henderson, Bloom Mound, and Gurnsey. We explored the variation in point sizes, morphology, and surface flaking to better understand the effects of the transmission of information on final point form. Our analysis centers on geometric morphometrics, which we performed using the [geomorph] package in R Studio. To perform the analysis, we first produced high resolution photographs of each point. These images were imported into R Studio for the collection of landmark data from around the perimeter of each point (12 per complete point, 11 per point missing only the tip, 7 per point with lateral damage). Previous analyses based solely on metric data (e.g, length, width) indicate a high degree of standardization among projectile points in the region, and contextual data from the archaeological sites where the points were found suggest that this may be due to biassed forms of information transmission (e.g., “prestige biasâ€). We therefore hypothesize that standardization will also be evident in the geometric morphometric analysis, showing a high degree of standardization in overall shape as well as size, as was previously demonstrated. Our results will help us better interpret knapper behaviour at these sites, and will contribute to a broader understanding of cultural transmission that can be applied in other archaeological contexts throughout the world.
