Papers by Christopher Noll
Northwest Anthropological Conference Proceedings 2023, Journal of Northwest Anthropology, Special Publication #8, 2023
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What Are We Searching For? Anthropological and Archaeological Research in the Pacific Northwest, 2023
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Journal of Lithic Studies, 2015
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Journal of Northwest Anthropology, Nov 2012
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Recent studies of the Late Archaic period in the Great Basin have identified major changes in set... more Recent studies of the Late Archaic period in the Great Basin have identified major changes in settlement, subsistence, and technology compared to those seen during the Middle Archaic. The concern of this study is whether the Late Archaic at the Birch Creek Site (35ML181) is marked by a significant change in adaptive strategy, as it appears to be in much of the Great Basin. This thesis uses the sediments encountered and material recovered from the 2006 excavations of the Birch Creek Site, including datable samples, ancient pollen, ground stone tools, chipped stone tools and debitage, faunal remains, and evidence of ceramic technology as evidence of the adaptive strategy of Late Archaic people at the Birch Creek Site. The Late Archaic component was expected to be structured very differently from earlier materials if it were created by a new group of people practicing a new adaptive strategy beginning during the Late Archaic. Comparisons of Late Archaic artifact assemblages to previously studied materials from the Middle Archaic component of the Birch Creek Site were used to determine if a discontinuity in adaptive strategy exists. Material evidence of settlement, subsistence, and technological organization do not reflect direct continuity, nor do they indicate an abrupt shift, in adaptive strategies. The adaptive strategy during Late Archaic occupation of the Birch Creek Site appears to be a product of relatively local conditions related to subsistence and tool raw material resources, with some indications of wider regional interactions.
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Conference Presentations by Christopher Noll
Northwest Anthropological Conference, 2023
Despite the durability lithic artifacts they are susceptible to degradation under certain conditi... more Despite the durability lithic artifacts they are susceptible to degradation under certain conditions. One such degrading agent is water (and waterborne sediments). When lithic artifacts are exposed to watertransported sediments along shorelines or streambanks the result is often the rounding of edges and flake scar arrises recognized as water wear. While water-wear is notable when present, it is rarely measured or characterized as part of in-field or laboratory artifact analysis. The degree of wear is correlated with the duration of exposure of an artifact to water-transported sediments. An assemblage of water worn artifacts may provide an indication of the impacts to a site through fluvial or wave erosion. A four-part ranking system based on the width of arris rounding has been developed to assist in the evaluation of past and ongoing impacts to archaeological resources that include lithic artifacts. The system, potential application, and directions for future research are presented.
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In 2016, Versar conducted a survey and site evaluation project along Sage Creek, in the Lost Rive... more In 2016, Versar conducted a survey and site evaluation project along Sage Creek, in the Lost River Valley of south-central Idaho. Subsurface survey revealed a low density scatter of chipped stone tools and debitage. Despite the low quantity of identified artifacts, they exhibit a high degree of raw material variability. A temporally diagnostic projectile point fragment indicates that the site was occupied between 700 and 150 years ago. Analysis of the assemblage identified indications of horizontally discrete tool maintenance areas. Based on the raw material pattern, age, and probable activity at this site it was likely an integral part of a seasonally organized resource procurement system. The site serves as an important example of a key piece of the subsistence system that can only be recognized through careful analysis of a unique, but low density, artifact assemblage.
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Rogerson Formation: The sequence of variously welded ashfall deposits resulting from eruptions ab... more Rogerson Formation: The sequence of variously welded ashfall deposits resulting from eruptions above the Yellowstone Hotspot that occurred between 11.9 and 8 million years ago. The formation is exposed by faulting and erosion near the Idaho-Nevada border and increasingly obscured by basaltic lava flows and lacustrine deposits to the north. Member: The stone representing a single eruptive event. The Rogerson Formation includes 11 known members. Component: Refers to the recognizable physical variation within a member. Components are discussed in terms of rock types. They may be chemically distinct, texturally distinct, or both. Component rocks derive from unique local thermal conditions combined with the source lithology of the eruptive event. Ryholitic: Silica-rich volcanic stone. Describes the macro-chemical composition of the stone. Ignimbrite: Sedimentary stone derived from volcanic ashfall. The fusion of particles may range from weak with individual grains retaining their shape, to intense where individual grains are highly distorted and boundaries between grains are unrecognizable without magnification. Vitrophyre: Ashfall stone that retained sufficient heat to remelt the particles. Vitrophyre has a glassy appearance similar to obsidian but can be identified by chemical analysis. Obsidian: Glassy textured stone, frequently with rhyolitic chemistry.
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Volcanic rocks such as obsidian were commonly used for the formation of chipped stone tools by pe... more Volcanic rocks such as obsidian were commonly used for the formation of chipped stone tools by people during prehistoric times. Archaeologists have been able to learn a great deal about the movements of prehistoric people by charting the procurement sites and use locations of these stones through x-ray fluorescence (XRF). Typically XRF can determine the procurement location of volcanic tool stone within a few square kilometers. Occasionally sources are characterized that are widely scattered and XRF alone does not provide precise locational information; Browns Bench obsidian, which is found at scattered outcrops within a 37,500 square kilometer area, is one such source. The Browns Bench outcrops are highly variable due to the environmental factors that have acted on the nodules at each location. The physical properties and reduction strategies identified at each Browns Bench procurement site help generate expectations about which sources were used to produce tools transported over long distances, and those that were only suitable for locally used informal tools. The analysis shows that many of the occurrences of the Browns Bench source are not suitable for large formal tools that could be transported and curated.
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Ethnographic accounts of chipped stone tool makers using flake tools as pressure flakers is recor... more Ethnographic accounts of chipped stone tool makers using flake tools as pressure flakers is recorded among several groups. This practice likely extended back into prehistory. The recognition of the tool based on experiment results is dependent on the identification of the type and relative position of flake modification. The damage produced from static loading of the use edge relative to the loading point of the tool use edge is a diagnostic relationship. The flake tool pressure flaker is defined by a crushed edge and the presence of a load application surface that can transfer pressure directly to the use edge.
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Papers by Christopher Noll
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