Resumen de Nine-thousand years of optimal toolstone selection through the North American Holocene

Jeremy C. Williams, Diana M. Simone, Briggs Buchanan, Matthew T. Boulanger, Michelle R. Bebber, Metin I. Eren

• Stone was a critical resource for prehistoric hunter-gatherers. Archaeologists, therefore, have long argued that these groups would actively have sought out stone of ‘high quality’. Although the defining of quality can be a complicated endeavour, researchers in recent years have suggested that stone with fewer impurities would be preferred for tool production, as it can be worked and used in a more controllable way. The present study shows that prehistoric hunter-gatherers at the Holocene site of Welling, in Ohio, USA, continuously selected the ‘purest’ stone for over 9000 years.