The cultural macroevolution of lithic technological strategies in Northern and Western North America during the upper Pleistocene and Holocene

Abstract

Macroevolutionary analysis provides the opportunity to ask questions concerning the major patterns of long-term continuity and change in the cultural record. In this study, we address the evolution of lithic technological operational strategies spanning the last 20,000 years primarily in the northwestern and northern portions of North America. We measure systemic technological variation on a maximum of 159 site components with 100 artifact characters and character states. Results implicate multiple technological lineages likely deriving from origins in the Siberian Middle to Upper Paleolithic (Paleoarctic/Northeast Pacific Rim, Paleoindian/Archaic, and Paleo-Inuit).. We conclude that some technological strategies evolved for performance in particular environments (Arctic Small Tool tradition) while others evolved and spread across multiple regions likely due to their functional adaptability (Archaic). Finally, we offer methodological recommendations for measuring the likelihood of particular phylogenetic outcomes using Bayesian and phenetic procedures.