RADIOCARBON DATING OF TECHNOLOGICAL TRANSITIONS: THE LATE HOLOCENE SHIFT FROM ATLATL TO BOW IN NORTHWESTERN SUBARCTIC CANADA

• Published in: American Antiquity
• Main Authors: Grund, Brigid Sky, Huzurbazar, Snehalata V.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2017
• Subjects: Canada; Subarctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2017.53; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0002731617000531

Precolumbian archaeologists traditionally focus on periods of stability rather than change when constructing regional cultural chronologies. However, the advent of large databases of radiocarbon dates and the proliferation of open-source software environments such as R now allow archaeologists to understand technological transitions with greater chronological precision than has been historically possible. In this study, we employ Monte Carlo procedures, Bayes’ Theorem, the R package Bchron, and IntCal13 to address three chronological topics. We calculate the minimum number of dates required on atlatl and bow technologies to robustly date this late Holocene transition in Subarctic northwestern Canada, analyze previously published dates on organic projectile diagnostics to determine whether bows and atlatls overlapped for an observable amount of time, and estimate the years of calendric time that they overlapped. Results indicate that minimum sample sizes of 29 atlatl and 19 bow dates are required to characterize this particular transition in our study area. Actual radiocarbon dates show that bow and atlatl technologies temporally co-occurred within this region for 174 ± 135 (1σ) actual calendar years. Quantitative analyses such as these open the door to testing hypotheses that explain why and how technological transitions occur within and between (pre)historic groups.