Summary of the Southwest Anderson Plain ASTt

Before attempting to summarize the southwest Anderson Plain Arctic Small Tool tradition, it is appropriate to address the question of sample size as represented by the ASTt assemblages from this area. Although they do not lend themselves to statistical manipulation, all four sites share a basic, unique and exceedingly rare feature for ASTt sites in the District of Mackenzie; they show no signs of multiple occupation--more than likely each one represents a single ASTt occupational event. They reflect something very real, rather than the result of repeated occupations over long periods of time by potentially different but related groups.

It should be apparent that the four Anderson Plain ASTt sites share a number of distinctive characteristics. Some of these may allow us to reconcile these occupations to the prevailing theories regarding the presence of the Arctic Small Tool tradition in the region generally.

A first unifying trait is the fact that the predominant projectile point style by far is the bipointed variety. Flaking is most often parallel, oblique and collateral. The quality of workmanship is quite delicate and precise.

Burins of the classic "mitten-shaped" variety have been found at all four sites. In general they tend to be made on relatively long flake blanks, except at Vidiitshuu where some thick, stubby blanks were also employed. However, they are consistently made from unifacially shaped blanks. In virtually all cases, a distinctive thinning technique was used, apparently to adjust the width of the "bit". Grinding was restricted to the distal edge of the burin and appears to have been the most expedient way of creating a platform for burin spall removal. Facial grinding of burins was not recorded in the southwest Anderson Plain.

Grinding, as a technique intended to modify the overall shape of implements other than burins is, however, present at two of the southwest Anderson Plain ASTt sites (NbTj-9 and NbTj-17). Unfortunately these tools are fragmentary and their functions have yet to be determined.

Assemblage summaries of the southwest Anderson Plain ASTt sites

NbTj-8NbTj-9
Area A		NbTj-9
Area B		NbTj-9
Area C		NbTj-17MlTk-2
East Point
Debitage13952984357307301344
Tools1641582329
Microblades0105185
Burin Spalls11051136
Cores4233024


Although microblades were found at three of the four ASTt sites, they are present in very low numbers and microblade cores were not recovered. It seems reasonable to conclude that microblades did not play a very important role in the material culture of the southwest Anderson Plain ASTt. Might there be some seasonal or task specific use of microblades which could help explain the apparent importance of microblades at some sites and their relative unimportance at others? At present we would do well to remember that the relative unimportance of microblades at one site simply means they were not recovered in the same numbers compared to the total collection size as at another. This factor should be kept in mind since we did not completely excavate the sites we studied.

Evidence for the manufacture of large bifaces from coarse-grained raw materials such as greywake has been recovered from three of the four sites. Although not usually thought of as part of the finely-crafted lithic inventory of the Arctic Small Tool tradition, quite obviously such implements were well suited to the special needs of their inland adaptation (Gordon 1975: 263; Taylor 1972: 68).

Raw material use provides some useful insights into the ASTt presence in the region. By far the most prevalent raw material represented in the debitage collection was a distinctive siliceous argillite. Although a primary geological extraction site has been identified at the mouth of the Thunder River (Pilon 1990), in the southern part of the study area, an abundance of cortex flakes on all ASTt sites attests to the use of local secondary sources; storm beaches and eroding moraine deposits. Other locally derived raw materials used in lesser quantities include a sugary white quartzite, wide-spread throughout the northwestern portion of the District of Mackenzie, coarse-grained metamorphic rock types, and a variety of fine-grained cherts.

Although siliceous argillite predominates in the debitage collections, points and burins are most often made of fine-grained cherts. In contrast, pi ces esquill es and scrapers--more expedient tools--are almost always made of siliceous argillite.

Only one raw material appears to be truly exotic to the southwest Anderson Plain; vesicular clinker whose geological source is the Cape Bathurst Peninsula region (Le Blanc 1991b). The discovery of this raw material in three of the four Anderson Plain ASTt sites indicates some kind of sustained contact with the coastal zone. Although unequivocal evidence of the exploitation of sea mammal resources has not yet been found in the early ASTt sites of the Cape Bathurst Peninsula, the presence there of a people who elsewhere carried out this activity lends credence to the probability that such activities took place. Thus, we may posit a coastal-inland seasonal round or at the least, maintenance of close ties with coastal groups.

Debitage raw materials of the southwest Anderson Plain ASTt sites

NbTj-8NbTj-9
Area A		NbTj-9
Area B		NbTj-9
Area C		NbTj-17MlTk-2
East Point
Chert2124001411030080
Siliceous
Argillite		1119258215512322867
Vesicular
Clinker		55000861
Metamorphic014511197
Sugary
Quartzite		0081110
Quartzite9066037
Other01200262*
*mudstone

The chronology of the Arctic Small Tool tradition presence in the southwest Anderson Plain is an important one and at present rests upon a series of six radiocarbon dates obtained from the four ASTt sites.

When the individual dates were presented earlier, it was made clear that a number of considerations must be weighed in assessing the reliability of samples, even before they are submitted for radiocarbon dating. Clearly, the three younger dates must be rejected, as the oldest of these is two millenia younger than any other known dated site of this type. Of the remaining three dates, two are quite similar while a second from NbTj-8 is six centuries younger. This divergence can be understood by the fact that the younger sample, although from the same feature as the 3390 B.P. date was collected closer to the surface and was thus more exposed to possible contamination from more recent carbon.

The boreal environment has a very dynamic carbon regimen. Forest fires are an important component of the ecology and occur with regularity. There is thus a constant source of new carbon being added to the uppermost part of a soil column every few centuries. As shown at NbTj-8 and NbTj-9, a number of factors can affect the potential rate of contamination; type of matrix and porosity, surface vegetation type and depth of permafrost.

Only two of the six ASTt dates fall within the accepted range for the existence of this cultural tradition, and coincidentally, both are on the order of 3400 B.P. Their relatively large sigma values are a reflection of the particular counter used rather than a true indication of the reliability of the dates (J. Wittenburg 1988: pers. comm.). Considering the potential problems with charcoal from the boreal forest, if anything, the central values for these dates should likely be somewhat older.