Clovis is widely regarded as the oldest archaeologically visible, reasonably well-defined, and relatively homogenous early archaeological culture in North America. This body of work looks at the variability of Clovis fluted points and the lithic raw materials that they were produced on.

This thesis presents an investigation into Paleoindian projectile-point morphology. A goal of this research is to determine if evidence of a normative cultural manufacturing protocol can be identified on Clovis projectile points which can then be used to address research questions concerning Clovis point variability, and ultimately, the spread of this tool-form across North America. This paper addresses obstacles to behavioral investigations of stone tool morphology such as the effects of resharpening and raw material type on tool shape. I argue that a culturally normative process of manufacture was maintained throughout the life-history of Clovis projectile points which translated into a specific shape maintained to the time of exhaustion and discard. As an analytical tool, this study utilizes the geometric morphometric method to retain the geometry of each artifact throughout analysis by focusing on spatial covariation among landmarks uniformly found on each tool. This thesis investigates variability in 123 fluted projectile points from 23 archaeological sites in North America which met criteria meant to control for security of context in the archaeological record. Principle components describing the shape-variability inherent in this data-set were generated using geometric morphometrics and multivariate statistical analyses were employed to identify major factors of variability. This research concluded that Clovis projectile-point shape was determined by normative cultural behavior maintained throughout the life of the artifact and not the result of raw material type or resharpening processes. Therefore, the projectile-point variability found to be geographically patterned provided evidence of Paleoindian movement and the spread of tool form. Multivariate analysis of variance determined that a regional trend in variability was present. The distribution of within-site variance suggested that artifacts from sites in the West were very homogeneous while artifacts from Eastern sites were more variable. The multivariate cluster and discriminant function analyses also demonstrated a closer affinity between artifacts in the Southwest and Northwest than either has with the Northeast. The similarities in projectile point morphology between the Southwest and Northwest regions suggest movement beginning with a Southwest point of origin from which Pleistocene peoples may have carried their fluted point technology north and east.

This research is the result of archaeological testing that occurred from 2010-2012 at 38AL228, a multi-component quarry related site in Allendale County, South Carolina. This thesis 1) provides a summary of the testing in order to define the cultural sequence and isolate the Clovis component for further analysis, and 2) compares the Clovis lithic assemblage from 38AL228 with the Clovis lithic assemblage from the Topper site (38AL23) to explore possible manufacturing variability based on distance from the source of raw material within the Allendale chert quarries. The premise for the comparative analysis is framed around the concept of differential lithic signatures and site functions within a lithic quarry region as developed by Gardner (1974, 1977) for the Flint Run Quarry Complex in Virginia. No naturally occurring source of Allendale chert has been found at 38AL228, the nearest being 150-200 meters away, while Topper is located directly adjacent to a primary chert source. The large quantity of tools, cores, and lithic manufacturing debris at 38AL228 suggests that raw material was transported in and tool manufacturing occurred at the site. This analysis tests whether any substantive variation in lithic manufacturing exists between the two assemblages and examines the results in the context of proximity to the raw material source. The results of this analysis demonstrate variability in certain aspects of lithic manufacturing at 38AL228 and Topper and no recognizable variability in other aspects. Distance from the raw material source did not significantly influence Clovis biface production. All stages of Clovis biface manufacture are represented at 38AL228, and their distribution is proportionally similar to the Clovis bifaces recovered at Topper. Clovis blade technology is encountered more frequently at 38AL228 than Topper, suggesting that high-quality chert nodules or prepared blade cores were selectively imported into 38AL228 for blade manufacture. The types and frequency of Clovis flake tools indicate that non-lithic manufacturing activities were occurring in similar proportions at 38AL228 and Topper.

The objective of this edited volume is to bring together a diverse set of analyses to document how small-scale societies responded to paleoenvironmental change based on the evidence of their lithic technologies. The contributions bring together an international forum for interpreting changes in technological organization - embracing a wide range of time periods, geographic regions and methodological approaches.​ ​As technology brings more refined information on ancient climates, the research on spatial and temporal variability of paleoenvironmental changes. In turn, this has also broadened considerations of the many ways that prehistoric hunter-gatherers may have responded to fluctuations in resource bases. From an archaeological perspective, stone tools and their associated debitage provide clues to understanding these past choices and decisions, and help to further the investigation into how variable human responses may have been. Despite significant advances in the theory and methodology of lithic technological analysis, there have been few attempts to link these developments to paleoenvironmental research on a global scale.

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 technological systems are a by-product of human behavior. The essays cover a range of topics, including human behavioral ecology, cultural transmission, phylogenetic analysis, risk management, macroevolution, dual inheritance theory, cladistics, central place foraging, costly signaling, selection, drift, and various applications of evolutionary ecology.

Roughly thirteen thousand years ago, Clovis hunters cached more than fifty projectile points, preforms, and knives at the toe of a gentle slope near present-day Elgin, Bastrop County, in central Texas. Over the next millennia, deposition buried the cache several meters below the surface. The entombed artifacts lay undisturbed until 2003. A circuitous path brought thirteen of the original thirty-seven Clovis bifaces and points through many hands before reaching the attention of Michael Waters at Texas A&M University. At the site of the original cache, Waters and coauthor Thomas A. Jennings conducted excavations, studied the geology, and dated the geological layers to reconstruct how the cache was buried. This book provides a well-illustrated, thoroughly analyzed description and discussion of the Hogeye Clovis cache, the projectile points and other artifacts from later occupations, and the geological context of the site, which has yielded evidence of multiple Paleoindian, Archaic, and Late Prehistoric occupations. The cache of tools and weapons at Hogeye, when combined with other sites, allows us to envision a snapshot of life at the end of the last Ice Age.