When a Rock Pile Ceases to Be a Rock Pile: A Test of the 1985 Sullivan and Rozen Study Utilizing Experimentally Created Assemblages

Sullivan and Rozen (1985) proposed a method for making a distinction between activities associated with core reduction and the manufacture of tools utilizing an "interpretation-free" system of debitage classification based on the breakage patterns found on flakes and debris from an archaeological context. Debate over the use of this method centered around the accuracy with which it could be used to describe the prehistoric human behavior surrounding lithic reduction and tool manufacture and whether experimental archaeology was needed to confirm the usefulness of this method. In this paper I present a test of the Sullivan and Rozen model in which I utilize data taken from experimentally produced assemblages and compare the findings with those of Sullivan and Rozen in order to determine whether or not their findings are replicable. This test did not support Sullivan and Rozen's conclusions. While the interpretation-free categories suggested by Sullivan and Rozen are useful for categorizing different types of flakes based on breakage patterns, their inferences about human behavior from the percentages of debris and complete flakes, and flake thicknesses, present in the different assemblage types were not supported by the experimentally produced assemblages utilized in this study. This analysis concludes that the Sullivan and Rozen method has only limited utility and suggestions for ways of expanding the model's utility.

Author

• Humphries, Amy Michelle

Language

• en

Keyword

• debitage
• lithic reduction
• core reduction

Date created

• 2009

Type of Work

• Master's Thesis

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Anthropology

Degree

• M.A.

Advisor

• Blomster, Jeffrey

Committee Member(s)

• Thulman, David

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/6t053g09f