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Article · 2018

New tools, new human niches: the significance of the Dalton adze and the origin of heavy-duty woodworking in the Middle Mississippi Valley of North America

R. W. Yerkes and B. H. Koldehoff

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 50 69-84

An article on Dalton stone tools from northeastern Arkansas and southwestern Illinois, using microwear to argue that Dalton adzes served in heavy woodworking and probably in making dugout canoes.

Yerkes and Koldehoff compare Dalton tools from northeastern Arkansas and southwestern Illinois with Clovis toolkits, using microwear, technological analysis and site contexts to ask how tools relate to settlement, resource use and human niche construction in the Middle Mississippi Valley. They analyse 80 tools, made up of 42 adzes and adze preforms, 27 points and point preforms and 11 end scrapers, and examine samples from sites and caches under incident light against a reference collection of more than 170 replicas.

Yerkes and Koldehoff treat Dalton as an Early Archaic horizon that begins before the conventional PaleoIndian–Archaic boundary, around the Pleistocene/Holocene transition, and in which standardised adzes and other specialised tools supported settlement in woodland and riverine environments. The Illinois discussion distinguishes New Valmeyer, a bluff-top workshop and camp, Nochta, a terrace workshop and camp, George, an interior upland site, and the Lembke cache at Jens, and sets them beside Arkansas sites including Sloan, Brand and Lace (pp. 75–79).

Microwear indicates that the adzes were used for heavy woodworking, the points as projectiles and knives, and the scrapers on hides. The authors read New Valmeyer as a place for producing and replacing adzes and the Lembke cache as a used, varied toolkit, and they contrast Dalton's more localised, logistical settlement pattern with the greater mobility they associate with Clovis groups. Adzes used on charred wood, they argue, were likely used to hollow logs for dugout canoes, which would have eased travel and resource use along waterways.

What it records

  • No Dalton-age dugout canoes have been found in the Middle Mississippi Valley.p. 70
  • Dalton groups are Early Archaic societies dating to 10,500–10,000 B.P., or 12,000–11,500 cal. B.P., in Yerkes and Koldehoff's view.p. 70
  • Newsom and Purdy describe canoes as pack animals that did not need to be fed.p. 72
  • Dalton adzes were likely used to make canoes from hollowed, fire-charred logs, Yerkes and Koldehoff argue.p. 73
  • Charcoal residues were visible on 11 of the 17 Dalton adzes in the Arkansas sample, and their wear patterns match traces on replica adzes used to chop and scrape charred wood.p. 74
  • The New Valmeyer collection contained 256 adzes, including 72 complete examples, 17 fragments and 181 unfinished adzes.p. 75
  • Walthall and Koldehoff report that all known Sloan points come from a 400 km stretch of the Middle Mississippi Valley and are made only from Burlington chert.p. 75
  • All 10 artifacts examined from the Lembke cache at the Jens site had been used before they were placed in Feature 30.p. 77

Where to read

  • Microwear results for Arkansas adzes, points and scraperspp. 74–75
  • Illinois site contexts and microwear, including the Lembke cachepp. 75–79
  • Dalton and Clovis tool caches and watercraftpp. 79–82

Contents

  • 1. Introduction69
  • 1.1. Early Holocene climate and cultural periods in the Middle Mississippi Valley70
  • 1.2. Dalton niche construction in the MMV71
  • 2. Methods of analyses and regions studied72
  • 3. Microwear analysis of adzes and other tools from NE Arkansas Dalton sites74
  • 3.1. Dalton adzes74
  • 3.2. Dalton points74
  • 3.3. Dalton end scrapers74
  • 3.4. Points and tools from the Sloan Dalton cemetery74
  • 3.5. Summary75
  • 4. Microwear analysis of adzes and other tools from SW Illinois Dalton sites75
  • 4.1. Dalton adzes75
  • 4.2. The new Valmeyer complex – Bluff top workshops and camps75
  • 4.3. The Nochta site – a Mississippi River terrace workshop and camp76
  • 4.4. The George site – an interior upland base camp77
  • 4.5. Microwear traces on the artifacts in the Lembke cache at the bluff top Jens site77
  • 4.5.1. The Dalton adze77
  • 4.5.2. The Dalton point78
  • 4.5.3. The scrapers78
  • 4.5.4. Retouched flakes79
  • 5. Comparing Clovis and Dalton toolkits and caches79
  • 5.1. Microwear on Clovis and Dalton tools79
  • 5.2. Clovis and Dalton tool caches80
  • 6. Early Archaic niche construction in the Middle Mississippi Valley80
  • 7. Clovis and Dalton watercraft81
  • 8. Conclusions82

Objects published here

1
  • Dalton adze of Salem chert, Illinois State Museum, Lembke cache, Feature 30, Jens site, Item# 30-6A, Fig. 6a (p. 77)

People, places and institutions

People

  • Dan Morseprovided Arkansas Dalton artifacts for analysis
  • Albert Goodyeardescribed the Dalton assemblage and chronology
  • Walthall and Koldehoffinterpret Sloan points as exchanged symbolic bifaces

Places

  • Middle Mississippi Valleyregion studied for Dalton settlement and tools
  • New Valmeyer Complexbluff-top workshops and camps
  • Nochta siteterrace workshop and camp
  • George siteinterior upland site and possible aggregation place
  • Jens sitelocation of the Lembke cache
  • Lembke cacheDalton tools from Feature 30
  • Sloan cemeterycemetery and source of Sloan points
  • Brand siteDalton habitation camp
  • Lace siteDalton base camp

Also named: Shiloh Valley site, Netiv Hagdud site, Illinois State Museum, Illinois State Archaeological Survey, Missouri Historical Society, John Walthall, Newsom, Purdy.

Extent pp. 69–84, figs 1–7 including maps (figs 1 and 5); bibliography

TechnologySettlementsLandscape and ClimateSeafaringChronology and Dating

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