William Andrefsky
Biographic Data
| ID | 144611 |
|---|---|
| NAME | William Andrefsky |
| GIVEN NAMES | William |
| FAMILY NAME | Andrefsky |
| SIGNATURE | ANDREFSKY W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Washington State University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1141 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1982 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Do projectile points get cold? An experimental approach examining composite and stone projectile technology
Researchers have noted that cold temperatures may have had an impact on hunter-gatherer decisions concerning raw material selection for projectile points. This line of reasoning has been used to explain the phenomenon of projectile points of different materials occurring during the same time period in archaeological contexts that exhibit extreme seasonality. Cold temperatures are assumed to affect cryptocrystalline brittle solids adversely, where…
Lithic Technological Organization and Hafting in Early Villages
Hafting is an important part of lithic technology that can increase our understanding of socioeconomic behavior in the past. In this article, we develop a holistic approach to studying hafting by using the concept of curation within a broader assessment of lithic technological organization in early villages. Early villages were loci of socioeconomic transformation as part of the shift from mobile foraging to more sedentary cultivation lifeways. W…
Lithic Technological Systems and Evolutionary Theory
Stone tool analysis relies on a strong background in analytical and methodological techniques. However, lithic technological analysis has not been well integrated with a theoretically informed approach to understanding how humans procured, made, and used stone tools. Evolutionary theory has great potential to fill this gap. This collection of essays brings together several different evolutionary perspectives to demonstrate how lithic technologica…
Debitage Stylistic Variability at Cox Ranch Pueblo
This paper applies the method of stylistic flake analysis of to the analysis of debitage from two middens from Cox Ranch Pueblo, a late Pueblo II (ca. 1050–1130) period habitation site in west-central New Mexico. Previous research has suggested the multiethnic nature of site occupation based on the presence of two distinct methods for the manufacture of utilitarian ceramics and the site's location at the interface of two of the Southwest's tradit…
Reaping ‘rewards’ in sickle use-wear analysis
Debitage variability among multiple flint knappers
Sickle blade life-history and the transition to agriculture: An early Neolithic case study from Southwest Asia
Scandinavian Flint: An Archaeological Perspective. Anders Högberg , Deborah Olausson
Perforation with Stone Tools and Retouch Intensity: A Neolithic Case Study
A measure of retouch intensity, the EKCI, was devised based upon function and archaeological context. To arrive at the function of Pre-Pottery Neolithic A el-Khiam points from the Near East, controlled experiments were performed to determine the relative density of the contact material, which could affect use and retouch patterns. It was shown that el-Khiam points were likely used to pierce and scrape soft materials such as leather. The EKCI was …
Projectile Point Provisioning Strategies and Human Land Use
The classification of projectile points in North America often emphasizes the shape and size of the haft element and not of the blade element. Emphasis on the haft element in classification is an advisable strategy because the blade element morphology and size tend to change during the use life of the specimen. This is exactly why the characteristics of projectile point blade elements such as retouch amount, size, and shape are useful for inferri…
Exploring the Dart and Arrow Dilemma: Retouch Indices as Functional Determinants
Measuring retouch location and intensity on hafted bifaces is shown to be an effective technique for assessing artifact function. Unlike other areas of North America, where dart technology is replaced by arrow technology, Coalition Period occupations on the Pajarito Plateau of New Mexico contain both hafted biface forms used simultaneously. A stylistic analysis of dart points shows that hafted biface forms found in Coalition Period contexts were …
Exploring Retouch on Bifaces: Unpacking Production, Resharpening, and Hammer Type
Measuring retouch amounts on stone tools has been helpful for understanding human organizational strategies. Multiple retouch indices geared toward assessing retouch amounts on flake tools and unifaces have been developed, but few have been developed to evaluate retouch exclusively for bifaces. For this study, a retouch index was developed and evaluated on an experimental assemblage of bifaces. It is shown that reduction activities on bifaces may…
Lithic Technology: Measures of Production, Use and Curation
The life history of stone tools is intimately linked to tool production, use and maintenance. These are important processes in the organization of lithic technology, or the manner in which lithic technology is embedded within human organizational strategies of land use and subsistence practices. This volume brings together essays that measure the life history of stone tools relative to retouch values, raw material constraints and evolutionary pro…
The Analysis of Stone Tool Procurement, Production, and Maintenance
The application and misapplication of mass analysis in lithic debitage studies
Experimental and Archaeological Verification of an Index of Retouch for Hafted Bifaces
The relative amount of retouch on stone tools is central to many archaeological studies linking stone tool assemblages to broader issues of human social and economic land-use strategies. Unfortunately, most retouch measures deal with flake and blade tools and few (if any) have been developed for hafted bifaces and projectile points. This paper introduces a new index for measuring and comparing amount of retouch on hafted bifaces and projectile po…
Lithics: Macroscopic Approaches to Analysis
This book is a fully updated and revised edition of William Andrefsky Jr's ground-breaking manual on lithic analysis. Designed for students and professional archaeologists, this highly illustrated book explains the fundamental principles of the measurement, recording and analysis of stone tools and stone tool production debris. Introducing the reader to lithic raw materials, classification, terminology and key concepts, it comprehensively explore…
Cascade Phase Lithic Technology: An Example from the Lower Snake River
Chipped stone artifact data from several Cascade phase sites located on the lower Snake River are analyzed to evaluate lithic technological characteristics of the early Cascade phase. Interpretations based upon the stone tool assemblages suggest traditional generalizations about the early Cascade phase require some rethinking. Specifically, tool type and debitage type analysis indicate that early Cascade phase settlement organization was not nece…
The geological occurrence of lithic material and stone tool production strategies
This study shows how the occurrence of lithic raw‐materials articulate with hunter gatherer technological organization. Three archaeological data sets representing 109 different sites and one ethnographic data set from Australia are examined to show that lithic raw‐material size, shape, quality, and availability play a major role in hunter gatherer decisions to make various kinds of stone tools. These characteristics of lithic material occurrence…
Raw-Material Availability and the Organization of Technology
Ethnographic examples of stone-tool makers in Australia and archaeological examples from three different areas in the western United States indicate that the availability of lithic raw materials is an important variable conditioning stone-tool production technology. Attributes of availability such as abundance and quality of lithic raw materials condition the production of formal- vs. informal-tool types. Poor-quality raw materials tend to be man…
Inferring Trends in Prehistoric Settlement Behavior from Lithic Production Technology in the Southern Plains
The character of prehistoric settlement with regard to degree of sedentism and mobility is not well understood in many areas of the southern Plains. This article explores lithic analytical approaches that are useful for making inferences regarding prehistoric settlement behavior. The analysis is applied to a data set from the southern Plains in an effort to characterize changing trends in settlement behavior from Paleoindian times to late prehist…
Numerical Types and Inspectional Types: Evaluating Shape Characterization Procedures
Projectile point data are used in testing and evaluating various numerical shape classification procedures. Inspectional point types play the role of a control population while clustering algorithms, attribute section, and standardization techniques are tested. The most effective numerical procedure identified for the classification of projectile point form is a combination of k-means analysis, ratio scale measurements between attributes, and sta…
A Consideration of Blade and Flake Curvature
A method for characterizing blade and flake curvature is introduced and discussed in the context of broader prehistoric behavioral interpretation. The curvature value begins with interval measurements: angle length, angle depth, and thickness at midpoint. Each of these terms are described and techniques for obtaining each are discussed. From these, simple Euclidean geometry is used to derive an overall curvature value. Brief examples of how curva…
Reduction Sequences and the Exchange of Obsidian in Neolithic Calabria
Raw-Material Availability and the Organization of Technology
Ethnographic examples of stone-tool makers in Australia and archaeological examples from three different areas in the western United States indicate that the availability of lithic raw materials is an important variable conditioning stone-tool production technology. Attributes of availability such as abundance and quality of lithic raw materials condition the production of formal- vs. informal-tool types. Poor-quality raw materials tend to be man…
Lithics: Macroscopic Approaches to Analysis
This book is a fully updated and revised edition of William Andrefsky Jr's ground-breaking manual on lithic analysis. Designed for students and professional archaeologists, this highly illustrated book explains the fundamental principles of the measurement, recording and analysis of stone tools and stone tool production debris. Introducing the reader to lithic raw materials, classification, terminology and key concepts, it comprehensively explore…
The Analysis of Stone Tool Procurement, Production, and Maintenance
The geological occurrence of lithic material and stone tool production strategies
This study shows how the occurrence of lithic raw‐materials articulate with hunter gatherer technological organization. Three archaeological data sets representing 109 different sites and one ethnographic data set from Australia are examined to show that lithic raw‐material size, shape, quality, and availability play a major role in hunter gatherer decisions to make various kinds of stone tools. These characteristics of lithic material occurrence…
Inferring Trends in Prehistoric Settlement Behavior from Lithic Production Technology in the Southern Plains
The character of prehistoric settlement with regard to degree of sedentism and mobility is not well understood in many areas of the southern Plains. This article explores lithic analytical approaches that are useful for making inferences regarding prehistoric settlement behavior. The analysis is applied to a data set from the southern Plains in an effort to characterize changing trends in settlement behavior from Paleoindian times to late prehist…
Experimental and Archaeological Verification of an Index of Retouch for Hafted Bifaces
The relative amount of retouch on stone tools is central to many archaeological studies linking stone tool assemblages to broader issues of human social and economic land-use strategies. Unfortunately, most retouch measures deal with flake and blade tools and few (if any) have been developed for hafted bifaces and projectile points. This paper introduces a new index for measuring and comparing amount of retouch on hafted bifaces and projectile po…
The application and misapplication of mass analysis in lithic debitage studies
Sickle blade life-history and the transition to agriculture: An early Neolithic case study from Southwest Asia
A Consideration of Blade and Flake Curvature
A method for characterizing blade and flake curvature is introduced and discussed in the context of broader prehistoric behavioral interpretation. The curvature value begins with interval measurements: angle length, angle depth, and thickness at midpoint. Each of these terms are described and techniques for obtaining each are discussed. From these, simple Euclidean geometry is used to derive an overall curvature value. Brief examples of how curva…
Cascade Phase Lithic Technology: An Example from the Lower Snake River
Chipped stone artifact data from several Cascade phase sites located on the lower Snake River are analyzed to evaluate lithic technological characteristics of the early Cascade phase. Interpretations based upon the stone tool assemblages suggest traditional generalizations about the early Cascade phase require some rethinking. Specifically, tool type and debitage type analysis indicate that early Cascade phase settlement organization was not nece…
Debitage variability among multiple flint knappers
Numerical Types and Inspectional Types: Evaluating Shape Characterization Procedures
Projectile point data are used in testing and evaluating various numerical shape classification procedures. Inspectional point types play the role of a control population while clustering algorithms, attribute section, and standardization techniques are tested. The most effective numerical procedure identified for the classification of projectile point form is a combination of k-means analysis, ratio scale measurements between attributes, and sta…
Do projectile points get cold? An experimental approach examining composite and stone projectile technology
Researchers have noted that cold temperatures may have had an impact on hunter-gatherer decisions concerning raw material selection for projectile points. This line of reasoning has been used to explain the phenomenon of projectile points of different materials occurring during the same time period in archaeological contexts that exhibit extreme seasonality. Cold temperatures are assumed to affect cryptocrystalline brittle solids adversely, where…
Lithic Technological Organization and Hafting in Early Villages
Hafting is an important part of lithic technology that can increase our understanding of socioeconomic behavior in the past. In this article, we develop a holistic approach to studying hafting by using the concept of curation within a broader assessment of lithic technological organization in early villages. Early villages were loci of socioeconomic transformation as part of the shift from mobile foraging to more sedentary cultivation lifeways. W…
Debitage Stylistic Variability at Cox Ranch Pueblo
This paper applies the method of stylistic flake analysis of to the analysis of debitage from two middens from Cox Ranch Pueblo, a late Pueblo II (ca. 1050–1130) period habitation site in west-central New Mexico. Previous research has suggested the multiethnic nature of site occupation based on the presence of two distinct methods for the manufacture of utilitarian ceramics and the site's location at the interface of two of the Southwest's tradit…
Reaping ‘rewards’ in sickle use-wear analysis
Reduction Sequences and the Exchange of Obsidian in Neolithic Calabria
Numerical Types and Inspectional Types: Evaluating Shape Characterization Procedures
Projectile point data are used in testing and evaluating various numerical shape classification procedures. Inspectional point types play the role of a control population while clustering algorithms, attribute section, and standardization techniques are tested. The most effective numerical procedure identified for the classification of projectile point form is a combination of k-means analysis, ratio scale measurements between attributes, and sta…
A Consideration of Blade and Flake Curvature
A method for characterizing blade and flake curvature is introduced and discussed in the context of broader prehistoric behavioral interpretation. The curvature value begins with interval measurements: angle length, angle depth, and thickness at midpoint. Each of these terms are described and techniques for obtaining each are discussed. From these, simple Euclidean geometry is used to derive an overall curvature value. Brief examples of how curva…
Inferring Trends in Prehistoric Settlement Behavior from Lithic Production Technology in the Southern Plains
The character of prehistoric settlement with regard to degree of sedentism and mobility is not well understood in many areas of the southern Plains. This article explores lithic analytical approaches that are useful for making inferences regarding prehistoric settlement behavior. The analysis is applied to a data set from the southern Plains in an effort to characterize changing trends in settlement behavior from Paleoindian times to late prehist…
The geological occurrence of lithic material and stone tool production strategies
This study shows how the occurrence of lithic raw‐materials articulate with hunter gatherer technological organization. Three archaeological data sets representing 109 different sites and one ethnographic data set from Australia are examined to show that lithic raw‐material size, shape, quality, and availability play a major role in hunter gatherer decisions to make various kinds of stone tools. These characteristics of lithic material occurrence…
Raw-Material Availability and the Organization of Technology
Ethnographic examples of stone-tool makers in Australia and archaeological examples from three different areas in the western United States indicate that the availability of lithic raw materials is an important variable conditioning stone-tool production technology. Attributes of availability such as abundance and quality of lithic raw materials condition the production of formal- vs. informal-tool types. Poor-quality raw materials tend to be man…
Cascade Phase Lithic Technology: An Example from the Lower Snake River
Chipped stone artifact data from several Cascade phase sites located on the lower Snake River are analyzed to evaluate lithic technological characteristics of the early Cascade phase. Interpretations based upon the stone tool assemblages suggest traditional generalizations about the early Cascade phase require some rethinking. Specifically, tool type and debitage type analysis indicate that early Cascade phase settlement organization was not nece…
Lithics: Macroscopic Approaches to Analysis
This book is a fully updated and revised edition of William Andrefsky Jr's ground-breaking manual on lithic analysis. Designed for students and professional archaeologists, this highly illustrated book explains the fundamental principles of the measurement, recording and analysis of stone tools and stone tool production debris. Introducing the reader to lithic raw materials, classification, terminology and key concepts, it comprehensively explore…
The application and misapplication of mass analysis in lithic debitage studies
Experimental and Archaeological Verification of an Index of Retouch for Hafted Bifaces
The relative amount of retouch on stone tools is central to many archaeological studies linking stone tool assemblages to broader issues of human social and economic land-use strategies. Unfortunately, most retouch measures deal with flake and blade tools and few (if any) have been developed for hafted bifaces and projectile points. This paper introduces a new index for measuring and comparing amount of retouch on hafted bifaces and projectile po…
Perforation with Stone Tools and Retouch Intensity: A Neolithic Case Study
A measure of retouch intensity, the EKCI, was devised based upon function and archaeological context. To arrive at the function of Pre-Pottery Neolithic A el-Khiam points from the Near East, controlled experiments were performed to determine the relative density of the contact material, which could affect use and retouch patterns. It was shown that el-Khiam points were likely used to pierce and scrape soft materials such as leather. The EKCI was …
Projectile Point Provisioning Strategies and Human Land Use
The classification of projectile points in North America often emphasizes the shape and size of the haft element and not of the blade element. Emphasis on the haft element in classification is an advisable strategy because the blade element morphology and size tend to change during the use life of the specimen. This is exactly why the characteristics of projectile point blade elements such as retouch amount, size, and shape are useful for inferri…
Exploring the Dart and Arrow Dilemma: Retouch Indices as Functional Determinants
Measuring retouch location and intensity on hafted bifaces is shown to be an effective technique for assessing artifact function. Unlike other areas of North America, where dart technology is replaced by arrow technology, Coalition Period occupations on the Pajarito Plateau of New Mexico contain both hafted biface forms used simultaneously. A stylistic analysis of dart points shows that hafted biface forms found in Coalition Period contexts were …
Exploring Retouch on Bifaces: Unpacking Production, Resharpening, and Hammer Type
Measuring retouch amounts on stone tools has been helpful for understanding human organizational strategies. Multiple retouch indices geared toward assessing retouch amounts on flake tools and unifaces have been developed, but few have been developed to evaluate retouch exclusively for bifaces. For this study, a retouch index was developed and evaluated on an experimental assemblage of bifaces. It is shown that reduction activities on bifaces may…
Lithic Technology: Measures of Production, Use and Curation
The life history of stone tools is intimately linked to tool production, use and maintenance. These are important processes in the organization of lithic technology, or the manner in which lithic technology is embedded within human organizational strategies of land use and subsistence practices. This volume brings together essays that measure the life history of stone tools relative to retouch values, raw material constraints and evolutionary pro…
The Analysis of Stone Tool Procurement, Production, and Maintenance
Sickle blade life-history and the transition to agriculture: An early Neolithic case study from Southwest Asia
Scandinavian Flint: An Archaeological Perspective. Anders Högberg , Deborah Olausson
Debitage variability among multiple flint knappers
Reaping ‘rewards’ in sickle use-wear analysis
Debitage Stylistic Variability at Cox Ranch Pueblo
This paper applies the method of stylistic flake analysis of to the analysis of debitage from two middens from Cox Ranch Pueblo, a late Pueblo II (ca. 1050–1130) period habitation site in west-central New Mexico. Previous research has suggested the multiethnic nature of site occupation based on the presence of two distinct methods for the manufacture of utilitarian ceramics and the site's location at the interface of two of the Southwest's tradit…
Lithic Technological Systems and Evolutionary Theory
Stone tool analysis relies on a strong background in analytical and methodological techniques. However, lithic technological analysis has not been well integrated with a theoretically informed approach to understanding how humans procured, made, and used stone tools. Evolutionary theory has great potential to fill this gap. This collection of essays brings together several different evolutionary perspectives to demonstrate how lithic technologica…
Do projectile points get cold? An experimental approach examining composite and stone projectile technology
Researchers have noted that cold temperatures may have had an impact on hunter-gatherer decisions concerning raw material selection for projectile points. This line of reasoning has been used to explain the phenomenon of projectile points of different materials occurring during the same time period in archaeological contexts that exhibit extreme seasonality. Cold temperatures are assumed to affect cryptocrystalline brittle solids adversely, where…
Lithic Technological Organization and Hafting in Early Villages
Hafting is an important part of lithic technology that can increase our understanding of socioeconomic behavior in the past. In this article, we develop a holistic approach to studying hafting by using the concept of curation within a broader assessment of lithic technological organization in early villages. Early villages were loci of socioeconomic transformation as part of the shift from mobile foraging to more sedentary cultivation lifeways. W…
Archaeology (21 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (21 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (19 works) · Geography (16 works) · Computer Science (15 works) · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies (9 works) · History (9 works) · Lithic technology (9 works) · Mathematics (7 works) · Biology (6 works)