Abstract

The purpose of this research is to construct and test a model of the organization of microcore technology, within the subsistence-settlement system of prehistoric, semi-sedentary hunter-gatherers. The study of technological organization involves investigation of why a society selects particular tool designs, and how it structures the manufacture, use, maintenance and discard of tools and associated debitage across the landscape. The model tested here associates the use of microcore technology with a design for a maintainable and transportable tool assemblage which conserves lithic material and with a distribution focused on residential camps as the locus of microcore manufacture, and microblade production and use. The model is tested through a comparative case study of archaeological tools and debitage from microlithic and non-microlithic sites in two upland valleys in the British Columbia Southern Interior Plateau. Results indicate that microcore technology was variable in design goals and distribution, even within the same geographically and ethnographically defined region.