Intercluster Lithic Patterning at Nobles Pond: A Case for “Disembedded” Procurement among Early Paleoindian Societies

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Abstract
This study examines the relation between raw-material procurement and subsistence behavior among foraging societies. “Embedded procurement” of raw materials may characterize many or most modern foraging societies (Binford 1979). Past societies, however, present economic configurations different than those of any contemporary society. The Early Paleoindian societies of North America present extreme examples in this regard, and were characterized by high mobility, low population density, and high weapon reliability. A lithic-debitage analysis of a portion of the Nobles Pond site (33ST357) supports the argument that the acquisition of lithic raw materials was not embedded in subsistence behavior, but rather, was a specialized activity required by the particular demands of band aggregation in a location far removed from sources of acceptable lithic materials.