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in press

Brewer-LaPorta, M., Burke, A., and Field, D., (eds.), Ancient Quarries and Mines: A Trans-Atlantic Perspective: Oxbow Press, Oxford, U.K.

ABSTRACT: This volume has its origins in a series of meetings on prehistoric mines and quarries held at the Society for American Archaeology Annual Symposium in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2006.  These included symposium and poster sessions that investigated a variety of aspects of recent work, along with a workshop to discuss international nomenclature, and were among the first events arranged by the Prehistoric Quarries Interest Group of the SAA.  The interest group generated a resolve to establish further workshops and events in future years in order to encourage and stimulate new ideas and provide a catalyst for new areas of research.  Some of the contributions made were to be published elsewhere, but others have been brought together as a follow up to a similar set of papers from an earlier meeting, The Cultural Landscape of Prehistoric Mines edited by Peter Topping and Mark Lynott in 2005 and published by Oxbow Books.  Essays are loosely grouped into matters dealing with the old world, ancient world and the new world, rather than by rock or quarry type, or by period.  The contributions range from those dealing with ethnography to those with a geochemical approach, from excavation to survey to conservation, all of which serve to reflect the wide ranging approaches currently being applied to the subject.

in press

LaPorta, P., Minchak, S., and Brewer-LaPorta, M., The Life and History of Extraction Tools Excavated from the Skene Motion and Workshop, Hartford Basin, Champlain Valley, New York, U.S.A., in Brewer-LaPorta, M., Burke, A., and Field, D., (eds.), Ancient Quarries and Mines: A Trans-Atlantic Perspective: Oxbow Press, Oxford, U.K.

ABSTRACT: The Skene quarry and associated workshop yield particular insights into the types of tools necessary for the extraction of cherts from low inclination (14-15°) rock beds and for the processing of extracted ore in a setting deficient in abundant raw materials.  The Skene quarry typically yields numerous exhausted quarry instruments; however, less than expected numbers were recovered.  The workshop associated with the quarry, revealed a wealth of recycled quarry and processing tools, including wedges and debris resulting from the refashioning of mining implements into forms necessary for ore processing.

in press

Minchak, S., Subsistence activities at quarries and quarry-related workshops: Testing the Holmes and Bryan alternatives with blades from the Gault Site, in Brewer-LaPorta, M., Burke, A., and Field, D., (eds.), Ancient Quarries and Mines: A Trans-Atlantic Perspective, Oxbow Press, Oxford, U.K.

ABSTRACT: Prehistoric quarries in North America are poorly understood and thus problematical when making inferences about past behavior.  William Henry Holmes hypothesized that quarries were exclusive producers of blanks (pre-forms) that were further refined in villages away from the quarry. In contrast, Kirk Bryan postulated that Holmes "blanks" were usable tools and that quarries also served as factories for working other materials.  A microwear analysis of Clovis blades from the 2000 Texas A&M University excavations at Gault serves as a test for the alternative hypotheses, indicating that determining non-extraction activities at quarries and quarry-related workshops is also more problematical than thought.

2009

LaPorta, P., The Stratigraphy and Structure of the Cambrian and Ordovician Chert-Bearing Carbonates of the Wallkill River Valley:  The Stratigraphic Nature of the Chert and Their Archaeological Potential: Ph.D. dissertation, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, NY., 3 volume set (including plates and appendices), 658 p.

ABSTRACT: The Kittatinny Supergroup in northwestern New Jersey/southeastern New York was correlated to age-equivalent rocks in the Pennsylvania salient (Drake, 1965; Markewicz and Dalton, 1977).  Along-strike variations in faces and thickness, from the Pennsylvania salient to the New York recess (Thomas, 1977), are responsible for inconsistencies in stratigraphic assignment between the two depositional settings.  Stratigraphic inconsistencies also fostered differing interpretations of the structural history of the area (Gray, 1959; Zen, 1967; Drake, 1969, 1970; Herman and Monteverde, 1989; Herman et al., 1997).

Stratigraphic measurement (1:98 scale) and geologic mapping (1:24,000 scale) conducted for this study recorded diagnostic chert horizons utilizable as mapping aids, in conjunction with previously undocumented faunal assemblages.  Therefore, the Kittatinny stratigraphy was redefined; specifically, three new formations and eight new members were created that more accurately illustrated the genetic relationships between adjacent, but different, tectonic depocenters (the Pennsylvania salient vs. the New York recess).  The stratigraphic re-organization, and re-mapping of the Hamburg quadrangle, supported balanced and restored cross sections that clarified the structural evolution of the study area.  Finally, the detailed stratigraphic work allowed for sea-level curve construction for this part of the Cambrian-Ordovician passive margin.  Bed-by-bed correlation of the chert stratigraphy with sea-level curves suggested that cherts were deposited on unconformities marking regressions on this part of the passive margin.

Inter-disciplinary applications of the revised stratigraphy, and the structural features of the Cambrian-Ordovician rocks, permitted the discovery of greater than 600 prehistoric bedrock chert quarry complexes in the study area.  Geologic controls dictate the spatial distribution of the quarries, the success and/or failure of indigenous peoples in mining this ore and the types of tools that were created once mining yielded a utilizable product.  A typical quarry plan has been observed in the study area, where quarries have a similar layout based on measurable geological constraints.  A new chain-of operation has been introduced, again based on the geological constraints of mined ore.  Previously in lithic studies, tool manufacture began with a blank (Callahan, 1979; Crabtree, 1972).  This study redefines stone-tool manufacture as beginning with a microlithon package, a geologically constrained template that controls stone-tool design.

2008

Schneider, J., and LaPorta, P., Geological Constraints on Groundstone Production and Consumption in the Southern Levant, in Rowan, Y., and Ebeling, J., (eds.), New Approaches to Old Stones: Recent Studies of Groundstone Artifacts: Equinox Publishing, Ltd., 386 p.

ABSTRACT: In recent years, archaeological interest in Southern Levantine ground-stone artifacts, and ground-stone studies in general throughout the world, has shifted from description and typology to more meaningful analyses of the life cycles of artifacts, such as the human decision making in their creation, their possible use(s), the various stages in their lives, and the reasons and conditions of the final discard (e.g. Fratt and Biancaniello, 1993; Wright, 1993; Ebeling, 2001; Adams, 2002; Schneider, 2002a; 2002b).  The term chaine de operatoire is widely used in the Old World for describing this approach to understanding the archaeological record.

2007

Minchak, S., A Microwear Study of Clovis Blades from the Gault Site, Bell County,Texas: M.A. thesis: Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, 215 p.

ABSTRACT: Prehistoric quarries in America are poorly understood and thus problematical to take into account when making inferences about past behavior.  A microwear analysis of Clovis blades from the 2000 Texas A&M University excavations at the Gault site (41BL323), located in southern Bell County, Texas, provided a window into this problem.  Texas A&M excavations on the site produced an extraordinarily large number of Clovis artifacts in two bounded geologic units, 3a and 3b.  Included in the artifact types are blades, specialized elongate flakes associated with a core and blade technology.  In conducting a microwear analysis of the Clovis blades from Gault, I proposed the following questions: (1) were the Clovis blades utilized at Gault?; (2) is there a difference in the use-wear patterns of Clovis blades from the geological units 3a and 3b?; and (3) is Gault, as a quarry/workshop site, a place to just obtain raw materials or did it also serve as a craft site?

Observations from experiments, stereomicroscope analysis, compound microscope analysis, and SEM/EDS analysis led to answers for two research questions: (1) blades were used at Gault and (2) there is a difference between Clovis units 3a and 3b.  Eight Clovis 3a blades, or 3.0% of the total Clovis 3a blade/blade fragment population (n=264), exhibit use-wear.  Six Clovis 3b blades, 3.3% of the total Clovis 3b blade/blade fragment population (n=182), exhibit use-wear. In general, Clovis 3b blades were used on harder contact materials (wood to bone) than those in Clovis Unit 3a (softer contact materials similar to grass, sinew, and rawhide).

The function(s) of quarries and quarry-related workshops were interpreted by William Henry Holmes as a place to obtain raw materials, while Kirk Bryan interpreted them as a place to bring other materials to work in craft activities.  Following the microwear analysis of Clovis blades/blade fragments at Gault, I compared Gault to three other Paleoindian quarry-workshop sites (Wells Creek, Dutchess Quarry, and West Athens Hill).  My intent is to provide supplemental data for the consideration when applying Holmes' and Bryan's respective hypotheses.

2006

Osborne, W., and Brewer, M., Geology of the McCalla 7.5' Quadrangle, Jefferson and Tuscaloosa Counties, Alabama,Open File Report: Geological Survey of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, 27 p.

ABSTRACT: The McCalla 7.5-quadrangle in eastern Tuscaloosa and southwestern Jefferson Counties, Alabama, is within the Cumberland Plateau, Alabama Valley and Ridge, and East Gulf Coastal Plain physiographic sections.  Paleozoic bedrock in the quadrangle is within the Appalachian thrust belt of the southern Appalachian orogen.  The southern Appalachian thrust belt consists of Cambrian through Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks that have been deformed by northeast-striking, northwest-translated thrust faults and thrust-related folds during the late Paleozoic Alleghanian orogeny.  Paleozoic units mapped within the McCalla quadrangle range in age from Late Cambrian to Early Pennsylvanian.  In the southern part of the quadrangle, unconsolidated sediments of Late Cretaceous age overlap the Paleozoic rocks.  The distribution of alluvium of Quaternary age has also been mapped.

The structural geology of the McCalla quadrangle is dominated by the Blue Creek anticline and syncline pair and by the Birmingham anticlinorium.  The Blue Creek anticline and syncline are Appalachian folds that deform the east flank of the Black Warrior foreland basin.  The northwest-verging Blue Creek anticline includes a pair of emergent thrust faults on its steep northwest limb.  The Blue Creek syncline is formed by the southeast limb of the Blue Creek anticline and the northwest flank of the Birminingham anticlinorium. The geometry of the syncline is complex and includes map-scale folds and northwest-striking normal faults having vertical displacements of less than 20 feet.

The regionally extensive, northwest-verging Birmingham anticlinorium occupies the central part of the McCalla quadrangle.  The northwest forelimb of the structure is steep to overturned, and the back limb dips moderately to the southeast.  The anticlinorium is associated with emergent frontal (and locally lateral) thrust ramps of the Jones Valley, Opossum Valley, and McAshan Mountain faults.  Anomalous Ordovician through Mississippian rocks exposed in the footwall of the Jones Valley fault along McAshan Mountains and at Bucksville are interpreted as an internally complex triangle zone between the northwest-dipping McAshan Mountain fault (backthrust) and the southeast-dipping Jones Valley fault.

2005

Barkai, R., Gopher, A., LaPorta, P., Middle Pleistocene Landscape of Extraction: Quarry and Workshop Complexes in Northern Israel, in Goring-Inbar, N., and Sharon, G, (ed.), Axe Age: Acheulian Toolmaking from Quarry to Discard: Equinox Publishing, Ltd., London, p. 7-44.

ABSTRACT: Evidence for large-scale Lower-Middle Paleolithic flint extraction in the southern Levant is presented in this paper.  Four Paleolithic quarry and workshop complexes are introduced as case studies.  A model for Lower-Middle Paleolithic flint extraction is proposed that includes the following characteristics: 1) noteworthy physiographic settings and flint-rich limestone formations; 2) extensive landscape alteration by focused quarrying activities; 3) a variety of open-cast mining (surface quarrying) techniques; 4) a large number of stone waste piles (backfill piles), strategically aligned between exhausted extraction fronts; 5) mining tools fashioned from locally derived limestone or basalt; 6) flint workshops located on piles of extraction waste (tailings); 7) workshop assemblages rich in primary reduction products and blanks (tested nodules, cores, tool rejects and debitage), with formal shaped tools being rare or absent; and 8) workshop activities highlighted by the predominance of Levallois cores and debitage, and large flake production with a minor component of bifacial tool preforms.  The study of such extensive Lower-Middle Paleolithic "industrial areas" provides a glimpse into the diverse raw material procurement and exploitation strategies of early humans, as well as their impact on the pristine landscape.  The history of quarry development, beginning with Lower Paleolithic mining activity, provides insights into general long-term trends in man's technological and cultural dynamics. 

2004

Brewer, M., Geometric and Kinematic Evolution of the Bessemer Transverse Zone, Alabama Alleghanian Thrust Belt, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 235 p. 

ABSTRACT: Transverse zones are important syn-kinematic components of thrust belt development.  Various scales of data were utilized to develop three-dimensional geometric and kinematic models for the Bessemer transverse zone (BTZ) of the Alabama Alleghanian thrust belt.

Regional analysis of the BTZ began with the examination of geologic maps (1:250,000, 1:48,000, and 1:24,000 scales), seismic reflection profiles, well data, and previous stratigraphic research.  All Paleolithic-age stratigraphic contacts, major thrust faults and associated folds, and various unnamed minor structures were compiled to create two strike-perpendicular, and five strike-parallel, cross sections transecting the extent of the BTZ at a scale of 1:100,000.  The balanced and viable cross sections were used to create palinspastic maps of the BTZ.  The deformed cross sections and geologic maps, and the restored cross sections and palinspastic maps, model the post- and pre-kinematic geometry of the transverse zone, respectively.

Additional geological fieldwork in the northwestern part of the BTZ permitted the construction of geologic maps (1:24,000 scale) documenting cross-strike links (the fundamental unit of transverse zones) exposed at the present erosional surface (Concord and McCalla 7.5' quadrangles).  Balanced and viable geologic cross sections (1:24,000) were constructed from these data and placed parallel and perpendicular to strike of cross-strike links.  The cross sections were restored and used to create 1:24,000-scale palinspastic maps of the cross-strike links in this part of the BTZ.  The cross sections and maps model the three-dimensional geometry of the cross-strike links comprising the BTZ.

Sub-allochthon structures are present beneath the thrust transport vectors of cross-strike links in the BTZ, indicating genetic relationships between transverse zone structures and underlying basement structures.  Basement-graben related changes in the stratigraphic thickness of the decollement-host horizon are interpreted as having localized and facilitated growth of the Bessemer mushwad, a ductile duplex in the allochthon.  The mushwad localized the structural position of two thrust sheets and several cross-strike links in the BTZ.  Gelogic map patterns of the transverse zone indicate a break-back deformation sequence for the BTZ, interpreted as a response to decollement propagation through an allochthon-spanning weak decollement-host horizon which had large stratigraphic thickness variations in basement grabens.

2004

LaPorta, P., A geological model for the development of bedrock quarries, with an ethnoarchaeological application, in Topping, P., and Lynott., M., eds., The Cultural Landscape of Prehistoric Mines, Oxbow Press, Oxford, U.K., 214 p.

ABSTRACT:  A long-term field study of the distribution of prehistoric bedrock quarries and quarry-related activities in the Central Appalachians, U.S.A., has revealed strong relationships between the stratigraphy and structural deformation of bedrock, the surface expression of the bedrock on the landscape and the ease to which the bedrock may be quarried for the raw materials sought after by prehistoric peoples (LaPorta, 1989, 1994).  Local variations in bedrock stratigraphy (i.e. facies changes) and the type of structural deformation have an impact on the style and extent of quarrying activity.  However, the physical constraints introduced by bedrock stratigraphy and structural deformation ensure that there are common elements not only in the development and layout of quarries, but also in the size of the tools that can be manufactured and the tool kit that is required, regardless of geographic setting.  The repeated, successful extraction of raw materials across the landscape suggests that these physical geological constraints were recognized in prehistory, yielding a kind of "folk geology" knowledge.  The application of such knowledge belies the commonly held view that raw material extraction in prehistory was largely an expedient affair with relatively little forethought.  

This paper presents a conceptual framework for investigating prehistoric bedrock quarries.  It discusses the factors that influence prehistoric bedrock quarry development and introduces a hierarchical classification scheme to distinguish between various levels of mining effort, towards a folk geology concept.  Modern mining terminology is employed to describe the chain of operation (Godoy, 1985) within a typical quarry, and the tool kit associated with each task.  The universal impact of physical geologic constraints on bedrock quarry development is then illustrated by ethnographic analogy to modern hard-hammer, hand-mining methods in southern India.

2002

Barkai, R., Gopher, A., and LaPorta, P., Paleolithic Landscape of Extraction: Extensive Lower-Middle Paleolithic flint surface-quarries and workshops at Har Pua, Upper Galilee: The Journal Antiquity, v. 76, p. 672-680.

ABSTRACT: A complex Late Acheulian-Early Mousterian quarry landscape was discovered during reconnaissance of prehistoric communities in the central Dishon Valley, Northern Israel.  The site is on the flat, narrow summit of Mt. Pua, where numerous flint nodules of various sizes are exposed within the limestone outcrops (Barkai & Gopher, 2001).  The summit is studded with hundreds of tailings (quarry debris heaps), each covered with flint nodules and prehistoric artefacts (tested nodules, cores, roughouts, tools, blanks, and knapped lithic waste material).  Preliminary mapping revealed approximately 1500 tailing heaps, varying in size from <0.3 m to > 3 m in height.

2000

Brewer, M., and Thomas, W., Stratigraphic Evidence for Neoproterozoic-Cambrian two-phase rifting of southern Laurentia: Southeastern Geology, v. 39, no. 2., p. 91-106.

ABSTRACT: U-Pb zircon dates document two separate continental rifting events of southern Laurentia: an older rift phase at 758±12 Ma and a younger rift phase at 572±5 to 564±9 Ma. Stratigraphic relationships mapped in the southern Appalachian Blue Ridge also document diachronous phases of Laurentian rifting.  Mount Rogers volcanic and clastic sedimentary rocks document the first rift stage.  Upward transition in the Unicoi Formation from late synrift sedimentary rocks to a passive-margin succession records the end of the second phase of continental rifting.  In northeastern Tennessee, synsedimentary faults in the lower Unicoi displace the Grenville basement-Unicoi nonconformity and further confirm the age of second stage rifting.  In west-central North Carolina, the uppermost unit of the Ocoee Supergroup, the Sandsuck Formation, is interpreted as being in conformable contact with the Unicoi Formation, suggesting that at least the youngest Ocoee sedimentation is associated with the second phase of rifting.  In northeastern Tennessee, the Unicoi Formation nonconformably overlies Grenville basement and oversteps onto glaciogenic sedimentary rocks of the Konnarock Formation.  The Konnarock Formation unconformably overlies and truncates Mount Rogers volcanic rocks, and onlaps onto Grenville-age basement rocks.  The Konnarock Formation, unconformably bracketed between the Mount Rogers (first rift phase) and Unicoi (second rift phase), was evidently deposited between the two phase of Laurential rifting.

2000

LaPorta, P., Geologic constraints on prehistoric quarry development, in Rammalmair, D., Mederer, J., Oberthur, T., Himman, R., and Pentinghaus, H. (eds.)., Applied Mineralogy in Research, Economy, Technology, Ecology and Culture,v. 2., Balkema, Rotterdam, p. 1013-1015.

ABSTRACT: The changes in chert exploitation patterns over time may be viewed as an indication that prehistoric people practiced a from of "folk geology" in order to acquire their preferred lithic raw materials.  Aspects of the folk geology would include the use of chert marker horizons to follow chert sources along stratigraphic strike, as well as a working knowledge of the mechanical properties of the various types of cherts and the quartzite hammerstones needed to extract the chert ore.  This proposed chain of operation bears certain universal traits in many prehistoric quarries, as well as historic mines.  The commonality of such traits is supported by ethnographic studies in eastern North America and peninsular India.

1999

Petraglia, M., LaPorta, P., and Paddaya, K., The first Acheaulian quarry in India: Stone tool manufacture, biface morphology, and behaviors: Journal of Anthropological Research, v. 55, p. 39-70.

ABSTRACT: An Acheulian quarry was recently identified in the Hunsgi Valley, India.  An Acheulian quarry has never been described before on the Indian subcontinent, and this is a site type that has rarely been investigated anywhere in the Old World.  The Isampur quarry is at a siliceous limestone bedrock source.  Surface survey and test excavations have revealed Acheulian assemblages, including a high density of chipped stone wast (i.e. cores, flakes, chunks), bifacial tools (i.e., bifaces, cleavers), and hammerstones.  Petrofabric analysis of limestone beds and study of artifact attributes indicate that hominids practiced standardized biface manufacture methods at this quarry.  Handaxes were made parallel to moderately thick tabular slabs, the handaxe tips and butts often intersection with joints.  Cleavers were made on side-struck flakes from thick cores, which were derived from the thickest limestone beds.  The dorsal surface of the side-struck cleavers was often subparallel to a bedding plane, and the bit was inclined into a cleavage scar or joint.  The steps involved in biface manufacture prior to and during the reduction process indicate that a significant degree of planning was employed, an important observation given our lack of understanding of Middle Pleistocene hominid cognition.  Repeated manufacture of certain tool types and discard of minimally retouched bifaces across the valley floors indicate relations between raw materials and behaviors that we do not yet fully comprehend.  

1998

Brewer, M., Stratigraphy and Structure of an Ancient Rifted Continental Margin in the Southern Appalachians of Tennessee and North Carolina, M.S. thesis, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 125 p.

ABSTRACT: Proterozoic crystalline basement; Neoproterozoic Crossnore Complex and Wilhite, Sandsuck, and Konnarock formations; and Neoproterozoic-Cambrian Unicoi Formation were mapped (1:24,000 scale) in the Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee and Graystone, North Carolina quadrangles to define contacts and faults.

In the Laurel Bloomery quadrangle, two northwest-striking, high-angle faults that displace the contact between crystalline basement and Unicoi Formation, have been previously interpreted as Paleozoic structures.  Syn-depositional variations in the Unicoi Formation proximal to the faults have led to a new interpretation of Proterozoic (Iapetos rift) age for the faults.

In the Graystone quadrangle, the contact between crystalline basement and Ocoee Supergroup has been previously interpreted as either a nonconformable contact or a Paleozoic thrust fault.  Localized deformation of the Ocoee Supergroup at the contact and mylonite zones near the contact provide evidence that the contact is a Paleozoic thrust fault. 

Along-strike sedimentary facies variations in the Unicoi Formation have been mapped for this study. The Unicoi Formation in Laurel Bloomery is quartz, feldspar, and granitic rock-fragment, pebble conglomerate, whereas the Unicoi Formation in Graystone is an arkosic sandstone that grades upward into a cross-bedded quartzite.  This variation in Unicoi lithology provides evidence of rift highlands and basins in the Iapetos rift system.

1996

LaPorta, P., Lithostratigraphy as a predictive tool for prehistoric quarry investigations: Examples from the Dutchess Quarry Site, Orange County, NY., in  Lindner, C., and Curtin, E.V. (ed.)., A Golden Chronograph for Robert E. Funk: Occasional Papers in Northeastern Anthropology, No. 15: Bethlehem, CT., Archaeological Services, p. 73-84.

ABSTRACT: Detailed geological mapping in the Goshen and Pine Island quadrangles has led to a reinterpretation of the structural geology of that area.  Complicated thrust faulting has brought repeated slices of chert-bearing lithologies to the surface.  The application of chert stratigraphy for Cambrian and Ordovician rocks served as a mapping aid that elucidated the complicated structural style.  The intersection of thrust faults defines a trend along which a great number of prehistoric quarries has been located.  Most of these quarries occur within the Lower Ordovician Halcyon Lake Group.  This lithological suite consists of the members of the Epler Formation, as well as the Beaver Run and Harmonyvale members of the Ontelaunee Formation.  All six members bear distinctive varieties of chert.

ABSTRACT:  Nodular chert occurs within all 13 members of the Cambro-Ordovician Kittatinny Supergroup of northern New Jersey, yet very little is known about their origin and history. Research studies in the Wall kill Valley of New Jersey indicate that the cherts form by pore-filling, dissolution, and replacement mechanisms. Because laterally persistent chert sequences can be utilized as marker horizons, detailed stratigraphy could be worked out on the basis of formation-formation variations in megascopic and mesoscopic texture and structure. The primary goal has been to use textures to develop models of the origin and diagenetic history of nodular cherts. A second goal has been to create geological models which accurately predict the locations of prehistoric chert quarries. A third goal has been to correlate the physical and chemical properties of prehistoric chert artifacts with specific chert horizons and even to one of the more than 300 chert quarries that have been located in northern New Jersey and southern New York.

1993

Bergman, C., LaPorta, P., Doershuk, J., Fassler, H., Rue, D., and Schuldenrein, J., The Padula Site (36NM15) and chert resource exploitation in the Middle Devonian River Valley: Archaeology of Eastern North America, v. 20, p. 39-66.

ABSTRACT: The Padula site (36NM15) is a large open-air, multicomponent site located in Northampton County, Pennsylvania.  Several different raw material types were utilized for the manufacture of flaked stone artifacts at Padula including jasper, chert, argillite, rhyolite, turbidite, slate, quartz, and quartzite.  The exploitation of lithic raw materials, particularly chert, is examined through study of the retouched tool types of the various cultural componenets.  These data are further incorporated into a technological and spatial analysis of the Padula lithic assemblage.  Initial results suggest that the cherts utilized for tool manufacture belong mainly to the Cambrian-Ordovician Kittatinny Supergroup common to the eastern Pennsylvania and northwestern New Jersey area.  The chert procurement strategies at 36NM15 appear to be based primarily on localized catchments.  Both the utilization of different materials and their on-site spatial distribution show patterning through time.

 1990

LaPorta, P., The Stratigraphic Relevance and Archaeological Potential of the Cambro-Ordovician Kittatinny Supergroup of the Wallkill River Valley of Northwestern New Jersey: M.A. thesis, Queens College of the City University of New York, 50 p.

PREFACE: This paper was prepared in conjunction with the Earth and Environmental Sciences U805, Independent Study, as a Field Trip guide for the Annual Meeting of the New York State Geological Association for 1989, and for the required Major Research Paper for the En-Route Masters degree. It was published in the NYSGA Field Trip Guidebook for the 61st Annual Meeting, 1989, pp. 241-267.

*** Updated Summer, 2009 by Margaret Brewer-LaPorta