M T Boulanger
Biographic Data
| ID | 21719 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M T Boulanger |
| GIVEN NAMES | M T |
| FAMILY NAME | Boulanger |
| SIGNATURE | BOULANGER M T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Southern Methodist University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3384-7884 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 53 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 259 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 53 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Description, Microwear, and Morphometrics of Clovis and Possible-Clovis Lithic Artifacts from the Kasten Site, Erie County, Ohio, USA
The Kasten Site is a multicomponent plowzone site in Erie County, Ohio that possesses a Late Pleistocene Clovis lithic assemblage. Here, we describe the late Pleistocene Clovis, and possible-Clovis, lithic artifacts via technological descriptions, illustrations and images, morphometrics, and microwear. The lithic artifacts are made from cherts which appear to outcrop between 94.7 and 356.8 km from the site. Based on our descriptions, we suggest t…
Hit or miss: Do microscopic linear impact traces (MLITs) form on Clovis stone tips launched via atlatl into foliage and sediment
Stone weapon tips can exhibit microscopic linear impact traces (MLITs), as a result of the tip impacting abrasive materials, including stone fragments from the tip itself that detached upon impact. Experiments have demonstrated that MLITs can form via the use of a variety of weapon systems, stone point types, and targets. MLITs found on North American Late Pleistocene Clovis points in association with proboscideans at the Colby and Lange/Ferguson…
Toolstone characterization, description, morphometrics, and microwear of a lithic sample from Uptar, Magadan Oblast, Northeastern Siberia, Russia
Preliminary results on the applicability of neutron activation analysis (NAA) to identify cherts from the Munsungun Lake Formation, Maine, USA
Red chert attributed to the Munsungun Lake Formation, Maine, USA is common in late Pleistocene fluted‐point‐period archaeological sites located throughout the New England states and Quebec, appearing more frequently than any other material type in the region. Despite the assumed association between red Munsungun chert and fluted‐point‐period sites, until recently, it was not possible to link red chert artifacts from these sites to a specific sour…
Our Work Will Continue: Geochemical Sourcing by XRF of Obsidian in the Collections of Helen Greene Blumenschein
Analysis of artifacts collected by the late Helen G. Blumenschein (HGB) provides a region-wide database for obsidian use between the Middle – Late Archaic and the Talpa phase in the Taos area of northern New Mexico, approximately 3000 B.C.E. to 1300 C.E. Using GIS to associate these artifacts with site locations from HGB’s records and the current site files maintained by the State of New Mexico allows us to verify locations of HGB’s work and to a…
Sayrosa, a Minor Obsidian Source in the Puna of Arequipa
This article reports the identification of the Sayrosa Source, a minor geologic source of volcanic glass referred to Rare Type-3 obsidian in the 1977 pilot study by Burger and Asaro. Located only 25 km northeast of the major Alca-1 deposit, this source was exploited in prehispanic times despite the relatively small size of its nodules. Occasional flakes and bifaces of Sayrosa obsidian appear at archaeological sites in the puna of Chumbivilcas and…
The Mielke Clovis Site (33SH26), Western Ohio, USA, Geochemical Sourcing, Technological Descriptions, Artifact Morphometrics, and Microwear
The Mielke site (33SH26) is a multicomponent locality in western Ohio, in an upland portion of the state that forms a drainage divide between the Great Lakes and Ohio River watersheds. The site possesses a prominent Clovis component that we describe here and assessed via test excavations, geochemical sourcing, technological descriptions, geometric morphometrics, microwear, and GIS analysis. Five different raw materials, whose outcrops are located…
Dynamics of obsidian procurement at Pot Creek Pueblo (LA 260), Northern New Mexico
A New Radiocarbon Database for the Lower 48 States
From 2014 to 2020, we compiled radiocarbon ages from the lower 48 states, creating a database of more than 100,000 archaeological, geological, and paleontological ages that will be freely available to researchers through the Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database. Here, we discuss the process used to compile ages, general characteristics of the database, and lessons learned from this exercise in 'big data' compilation
The Nelson stone tool cache, North-Central Ohio, U.S.A: Assessing its cultural affiliation
The Nelson stone tool cache was discovered in 2008 in Mount Vernon, Ohio. The cache does not include any diagnostic materials, and independent age control is unavailable. Although aspects of its 164 bifaces are suggestive of a Clovis affiliation – including the occasional occurrence of unmistakable flute scars – nearly all are in the early- to mid-stages of production, there are no definitive finished Clovis fluted points that would make it possi…
A collection of early Holocene flaked-stone crescents from the northern Great Basin
Small-Scale Household Ceramic Production: Neutron Activation Analysis of Plain and Decorated Ceramics From Pre-Aztec Xaltocan, Mexico
This study examines small-scale household ceramic production at the site of Xaltocan, Mexico, to understand the organization of household ceramic production prior to the development of the Aztec Empire. We examine utilitarian vessels and serving wares from an Early Postclassic (a.d.900–1200) domestic context using neutron activation analysis (NAA). We also examine archaeological evidence for ceramic manufacture. The NAA data reveal that similar r…
Current Evidence Supports Welling as an Outcrop-Related Base Camp
Seeman, Morris, and Summers misrepresent or misunderstand the arguments we have made, as well as their own previous work. Here, we correct these inaccuracies. We also reiterate our support for hypothesis-driven and evidence-based research
Mexican obsidian on Maui: Hawaiian connection, harmonic convergence, or hokum
Antelope Springs: A Folsom Site in South Park, Colorado
The Antelope Springs Folsom locality is located near Trout Creek Pass, which connects South Park, a high elevation basin in the Rocky Mountains, with the headwaters region of the Arkansas River. The pass is also the source of an eponymous jasper that dominates the small, surface collection of Folsom points, preforms, tools, and debitage we report on here. The Antelope Springs assemblage was focused on the reduction and replacement of a stone tool…
Description, Geometric Morphometrics, and Microwear of Five Clovis Fluted Projectile Points from Lucas and Wood Counties, Northwest Ohio, USA
The Black Diamond Site, Northeast Ohio, USA: A New Clovis Occupation in a Proposed Secondary Staging Area
Petrographic and XRF analyses of andesitic cut stone blocks at Teotihuacan, Mexico: Implications for the Organization of Urban Construction
Nine-thousand years of optimal toolstone selection through the North American Holocene
Description, morphometrics, and microwear of Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene artifacts from Southwestern Kentucky, U.S.A
The Atlatl to Bow Transition: What Can We Learn from Modern Recreational Competitions
The transition from the atlatl to the bow and arrow happened numerous times in prehistory, and it often accompanied changes in socio-political complexity and labor organization. Recent work relying on longitudinal scores from recreational archery and atlatl competitions suggests that changes in socio-political complexity and labor organization arose due to between-technology differences in learning rates: bows take more time to master, and thus t…
On the Late Paleoindian temporal assignment for the Honey Run Site (33-Co-3), Coshocton County, Ohio: A morphometric assessment of flaked stone stemmed lanceolate projectile points
Hunter-gatherer gatherings: Stone-tool microwear from the Welling Site (33-Co-2), Ohio, U.S.A. supports Clovis use of outcrop-related base camps during the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas
During the Pleistocene Peopling of North America, the use of stone outcrops for forager gatherings would have provided Clovis colonizing hunter-gatherers with several advantages beyond that of toolstone procurement. Stone outcrops would have been predictable and immovable places on an emerging map of a landscape for a thinly scattered colonizing population needing to find one another, as well as ideal teaching locales where novice flintknappers c…
The morphometrics and microwear of a small Clovis assemblage from Guernsey County, Southeastern Ohio, U.S.A
Description and microwear analysis of Clovis artifacts on a glacially-deposited secondary chert source near the Hartley Mastodon discovery, Columbiana County, Northeastern Ohio, U.S.A
Size, shape, scars, and spatial patterning: A quantitative assessment of late Pleistocene (Clovis) point resharpening
Hunter-gatherer gatherings: Stone-tool microwear from the Welling Site (33-Co-2), Ohio, U.S.A. supports Clovis use of outcrop-related base camps during the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas
During the Pleistocene Peopling of North America, the use of stone outcrops for forager gatherings would have provided Clovis colonizing hunter-gatherers with several advantages beyond that of toolstone procurement. Stone outcrops would have been predictable and immovable places on an emerging map of a landscape for a thinly scattered colonizing population needing to find one another, as well as ideal teaching locales where novice flintknappers c…
Sentinel Butte: Neutron activation analysis of White River Group chert from a primary source and artifacts from a Clovis cache in North Dakota, USA
Statistical Analysis of Paradigmatic Class Richness Supports Greater Paleoindian Projectile-Point Diversity in the Southeast
Ronald Mason's hypothesis from the 1960s that the southeastern United States possesses greater Paleoindian projectile-point diversity than other regions is regularly cited, and often assumed to be true, but in fact has never been quantitatively tested. Even if valid, however, the evolutionary meaning of this diversity is contested. Point diversity is often linked to Clovis 'origins,' but point diversity could also arise from group fissioning and …
Woodland period ceramic provenance and the exchange of Swift Creek Complicated Stamped vessels in the southeastern United States
Nine-thousand years of optimal toolstone selection through the North American Holocene
The Black Diamond Site, Northeast Ohio, USA: A New Clovis Occupation in a Proposed Secondary Staging Area
Design Space and Cultural Transmission: Case Studies from Paleoindian Eastern North America
A New Radiocarbon Database for the Lower 48 States
From 2014 to 2020, we compiled radiocarbon ages from the lower 48 states, creating a database of more than 100,000 archaeological, geological, and paleontological ages that will be freely available to researchers through the Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database. Here, we discuss the process used to compile ages, general characteristics of the database, and lessons learned from this exercise in 'big data' compilation
A new perspective on Late Holocene social interaction in Northwest Alaska: Results of a preliminary ceramic sourcing study
Description, Geometric Morphometrics, and Microwear of Five Clovis Fluted Projectile Points from Lucas and Wood Counties, Northwest Ohio, USA
On thin ice: Problems with Stanford and Bradley's proposed Solutrean colonisation of North America
Across Atlantic ice: the origin of America's Clovis culture(Stanford & Bradley 2012) is the latest iteration of a controversial proposal that North America was first colonised by people from Europe rather than from East Asia, as most researchers accept. The authors, Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley, argue that Solutrean groups from southern France and the Iberian Peninsula used watercraft to make their way across the North Atlantic and into Nort…
The Mielke Clovis Site (33SH26), Western Ohio, USA, Geochemical Sourcing, Technological Descriptions, Artifact Morphometrics, and Microwear
The Mielke site (33SH26) is a multicomponent locality in western Ohio, in an upland portion of the state that forms a drainage divide between the Great Lakes and Ohio River watersheds. The site possesses a prominent Clovis component that we describe here and assessed via test excavations, geochemical sourcing, technological descriptions, geometric morphometrics, microwear, and GIS analysis. Five different raw materials, whose outcrops are located…
Antelope Springs: A Folsom Site in South Park, Colorado
The Antelope Springs Folsom locality is located near Trout Creek Pass, which connects South Park, a high elevation basin in the Rocky Mountains, with the headwaters region of the Arkansas River. The pass is also the source of an eponymous jasper that dominates the small, surface collection of Folsom points, preforms, tools, and debitage we report on here. The Antelope Springs assemblage was focused on the reduction and replacement of a stone tool…
On the Late Paleoindian temporal assignment for the Honey Run Site (33-Co-3), Coshocton County, Ohio: A morphometric assessment of flaked stone stemmed lanceolate projectile points
Petrographic and XRF analyses of andesitic cut stone blocks at Teotihuacan, Mexico: Implications for the Organization of Urban Construction
The Atlatl to Bow Transition: What Can We Learn from Modern Recreational Competitions
The transition from the atlatl to the bow and arrow happened numerous times in prehistory, and it often accompanied changes in socio-political complexity and labor organization. Recent work relying on longitudinal scores from recreational archery and atlatl competitions suggests that changes in socio-political complexity and labor organization arose due to between-technology differences in learning rates: bows take more time to master, and thus t…
Current Evidence Supports Welling as an Outcrop-Related Base Camp
Seeman, Morris, and Summers misrepresent or misunderstand the arguments we have made, as well as their own previous work. Here, we correct these inaccuracies. We also reiterate our support for hypothesis-driven and evidence-based research
The Cinmar discovery and the proposed pre-Late Glacial Maximum occupation of North America
Proponents of a Solutrean colonization of the New World, and a pre-LGM occupation of North America's Mid-Atlantic region, cite as evidence a bifacially flaked, bi-pointed stone blade allegedly dredged from the continental shelf by the crew of the vessel Cinmar, along with portions of a mastodon skeleton later directly dated to 22,760 ± 90 RCYBP. However, our investigations into the discovery found several significant inconsistencies with respect …
On the Inferred Age and Origin of Lithic Bi-Points from the Eastern Seaboard and their Relevance to the Pleistocene Peopling of North America
Recently, advocates of an 'older -than- Clovis' occupation of eastern North America have suggested that bi-pointed leaf-shaped lanceolate stone bifaces provide definitive evidence of human culture on the eastern seaboard prior to the Late Glacial Maximum. This argument hinges on two suppositions : first, that points of this form are exceedingly rare in the East and second, that all known occurrences of these point forms are from landforms or depo…
Solutreanism
The comments of Stanford and Bradley (above) do not address our criticisms and obfuscate the topic at hand with irrelevant data (e.g. the south-to-north movement of fluted points through the Ice Free Corridor), nonexistent data (e.g. 'under the water' or 'destroyed sites'), and questionable data (e.g. Meadowcroft and Cactus Hill are by no means widely accepted, nor are Stanford and Bradley's 'eight LGM sites' in the mid-Atlantic region). Before t…
Preliminary characterization and regional comparison of the Dasht-i-Nawur obsidian source near Ghazni, Afghanistan
Hit or miss: Do microscopic linear impact traces (MLITs) form on Clovis stone tips launched via atlatl into foliage and sediment
Stone weapon tips can exhibit microscopic linear impact traces (MLITs), as a result of the tip impacting abrasive materials, including stone fragments from the tip itself that detached upon impact. Experiments have demonstrated that MLITs can form via the use of a variety of weapon systems, stone point types, and targets. MLITs found on North American Late Pleistocene Clovis points in association with proboscideans at the Colby and Lange/Ferguson…
Geochemical investigation of late pre-contact ceramic production patterns in Northwest Alaska
Characterization of obsidian from the Tibetan Plateau by XRF and NAA
Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis of Middle Woodland Pottery from the Delaware Valley
One hundred nineteen late Middle Woodland (ca. A.D. 200–900) sherds and 10 clay samples from the Lower/Middle Delaware Valley were analyzed by Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis. Principal components analysis resulted in the preliminary identification of 8 compositional groups. Two of these groups ( n = 42) and Piedmont-derived clay samples ( n = 4) are noteworthy because they exhibit markedly higher sodium concentrations in relation to the…
Introduction: Analytical Applications in the Archaeology of Eastern North America: Papers from a Session at the 2007 Eastern States Archaeological Federation Meeting, Burlington, Vermont
Geographic and Compositional Variability of Ceramic Resources in Northern New England
Approaches to ceramic analysis in northern New England have historically followed a normative approach to describing form and decoration. Further, these analyses have, with few exceptions, been limited to addressing questions of culture history and chronology. Recent analysis of pottery from the Woodland and Contact periods as well as natural clay deposits from Vermont and New Hampshire serves as a case study in how regional archaeologists may mo…
Woodland period ceramic provenance and the exchange of Swift Creek Complicated Stamped vessels in the southeastern United States
A new perspective on Late Holocene social interaction in Northwest Alaska: Results of a preliminary ceramic sourcing study
Sentinel Butte: Neutron activation analysis of White River Group chert from a primary source and artifacts from a Clovis cache in North Dakota, USA
Geochemical Characterization of Tecovas and Alibates Source Samples
Data recovery excavations at three sites near Amarillo, Texas, have yielded lithic assemblages dominated by Alibates and Tecovas materials. The visual distinction between these two southern Plains chert types partially overlaps in color, banding patterns, texture, and translucency. To help resolve this visual identification problem, samples from five spatially distinct Tecovas outcrops, two spatially distinct Alibates outcrops, and one gravel sou…
Preliminary characterization and regional comparison of the Dasht-i-Nawur obsidian source near Ghazni, Afghanistan
Comparison of fluoride and direct AMS radiocarbon dating of black bear bone from Lawson Cave, Missouri
After a 20-year hiatus (1955–1975) during which few archaeologists discussed fluoride dating, the method again received attention in the 1980s and 1990s when some argued for its validity. As a dating method, fluoride dating depends on the rate at which fluorine ions replace hydroxyl ions in osseous tissue. The rate of replacement is influenced by the properties of the skeletal part (SP), sediment chemistry (K), and sediment hydrology (H), and the…
Assessment of the Gripability of Textured Ceramic Surfaces
Archaeologists have suggested that various methods of surface texturing, specifically those resulting in alternating ridges and grooves, affect the gripability of a ceramic vessel. Various methods of vessel texturing were applied to ceramic test tiles and evaluated using a tribometer outfitted with a malleable skinlike substrate. Nontextured (smoothed) ceramic tiles were similarly evaluated. Tiles were evaluated under both dry and wet conditions.…
Experimental Evaluation of Sample‐extraction Methods and the Potential for Contamination in Ceramic Specimens
Contamination of ceramic specimens resulting from sample‐preparation techniques has the ability to confound efforts of chemical characterization. Primary contamination, identified by significant concentrations of one or more elements, is easily identified. Secondary contamination, resulting from undetected elements influencing detected elements, is more difficult to identify. Evaluation of six powder‐extraction techniques identifies variable effe…
Innovation and cultural transmission in the American Paleolithic: Phylogenetic analysis of eastern Paleoindian projectile-point classes
Elemental variation in prehistoric Unionoida shell: Implications for ceramic provenance
Solutreanism
The comments of Stanford and Bradley (above) do not address our criticisms and obfuscate the topic at hand with irrelevant data (e.g. the south-to-north movement of fluted points through the Ice Free Corridor), nonexistent data (e.g. 'under the water' or 'destroyed sites'), and questionable data (e.g. Meadowcroft and Cactus Hill are by no means widely accepted, nor are Stanford and Bradley's 'eight LGM sites' in the mid-Atlantic region). Before t…
On thin ice: Problems with Stanford and Bradley's proposed Solutrean colonisation of North America
Across Atlantic ice: the origin of America's Clovis culture(Stanford & Bradley 2012) is the latest iteration of a controversial proposal that North America was first colonised by people from Europe rather than from East Asia, as most researchers accept. The authors, Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley, argue that Solutrean groups from southern France and the Iberian Peninsula used watercraft to make their way across the North Atlantic and into Nort…
Neutron activation analysis of 12,900-year-old stone artifacts confirms 450–510+ km Clovis tool-stone acquisition at Paleo Crossing (33ME274), northeast Ohio, U.S.A
Transmission of Cultural Variants in the North American Paleolithic
The Cinmar discovery and the proposed pre-Late Glacial Maximum occupation of North America
Proponents of a Solutrean colonization of the New World, and a pre-LGM occupation of North America's Mid-Atlantic region, cite as evidence a bifacially flaked, bi-pointed stone blade allegedly dredged from the continental shelf by the crew of the vessel Cinmar, along with portions of a mastodon skeleton later directly dated to 22,760 ± 90 RCYBP. However, our investigations into the discovery found several significant inconsistencies with respect …
Design Space and Cultural Transmission: Case Studies from Paleoindian Eastern North America
Characterization of obsidian from the Tibetan Plateau by XRF and NAA
Size, shape, scars, and spatial patterning: A quantitative assessment of late Pleistocene (Clovis) point resharpening
Petrographic analysis of Contact Period Native American pottery from Fort Hill (27CH85), Hinsdale, NH, USA
On the Inferred Age and Origin of Lithic Bi-Points from the Eastern Seaboard and their Relevance to the Pleistocene Peopling of North America
Recently, advocates of an 'older -than- Clovis' occupation of eastern North America have suggested that bi-pointed leaf-shaped lanceolate stone bifaces provide definitive evidence of human culture on the eastern seaboard prior to the Late Glacial Maximum. This argument hinges on two suppositions : first, that points of this form are exceedingly rare in the East and second, that all known occurrences of these point forms are from landforms or depo…
The Wauseon Clovis fluted point preform, Northwest Ohio, U.S.A: Observations, geometric morphometrics, microwear, and toolstone procurement distance
Geochemical investigation of late pre-contact ceramic production patterns in Northwest Alaska
Archaeology (50 works) · Geography (46 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (41 works) · Geology (40 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (33 works) · Paleontology (23 works) · History (17 works) · Biology (15 works) · Ecology (14 works) · Projectile point (14 works)