The Open Anthropology Journal

2011, 4 : 40-52
Published online 2011 April 25. DOI: 10.2174/1874912701104010040
Publisher ID: TOANTHJ-4-40

Overshot Flaking at the Arc Site, Genesee County, New York: Examining the Clovis-Gainey Connection

Metin I. Eren , Stanley Vanderlaan and John D. Holland
Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Campus PO Box 750336, Dallas, Texas.

ABSTRACT

There are a number of purported distinctions between Clovis and Gainey technology. Prominent among these is the lack of overshot flaking in the production of Gainey bifaces. A recent survey of debitage from the Arc site in western New York state suggests that overshot flaking was indeed practiced by Paleoindians in the Lower Great Lakes, suggesting that Clovis and Gainey technology may be more similar than generally thought. It is concluded that a technological, and perhaps terminological, reexamination of the “Gainey concept” is in order.

Keywords:

Arc Site NY, Paleoindians, Late pleistocene lithic technology, Overshot flaking, North American Great Lakes region.