BOOK REVIEWS

dence times (Carr, 1982:116-131). They are not easily lost through volatilization, solution, or microbial decom- position, though they may be eluviated in acidic condi- tions. Their content in anthrosols have been shown to serve as excellent indicators of the amounts or kinds of activity in an area (Carr, 1982541-542, 524-529). (2) Nutrients including NH4, Ca, Mg, K, Na, and SO4 can be used to reconstruct the kinds of activities that oc- curred in a n area, if not their intensities. This is possible by assessing anomalous nutrient spectra on a presence- absence scale rather than absolute anomalous nutrient concentrations or ratios of concentrations-a form of data that Eidt does not consider. Using this approach, I (Carr, 1982:442,470-515) was able to distinguish activ- ity areas of different kinds (e.g., areas for cooking, shell- ing nuts, grinding seeds, shucking mollusks, hide work- ing) within a 1700 year old Indian farmstead. These results are not unexpectable, given the many mecha- nisms by which nutrient enrichments can be main- tained at least at a presence- absence level for consider- able duration in a soil: Cation and anion adsorption and exchange, chemical precipitation, chelation, nutrient cycling, storage in the surface vegetation, etc. I have also presented a general model that describes how anomalous soil nutrient concentrations and ratios shift through time toward levels determined by many ofthese same ecosystemic parameters (Carr, 1982:166- 176). (3) Nominal-scale spectra that track multiple kinds of soil nutrient anomalies can allow one to locate activity areas that are transparent when using P alone. This is true when the deposited materials have little or no P (Carr, 1982:460-461). Moreover, P concentrations, alone, can- not provide the detailed chemical information that is often necessary to identify the kinds of materials depos- ited in a soil, whereas a fuller nominal-scale nutrient spectrum can. Phosphate concentrations become espe- cially difficult to interpret when the duration and inten- sity of use of a n activity area are not known and the effects of these factors upon P levels cannot be segre- gated from the effect of the deposited material type-a common archaeological situation. Analysis of nominal- scale nutrient spectra minimizes this problem.

Second, Eidt favors the determination of total or frac- tionated nutrient concentrations over exchangeable or available nutrient concentrations (pp. 41, 35). Eidt is right that the latter do pose interpretive problems when their absolute concentrations or ratios are used (see above) but overlooks their utility when analyzed as a nominal scale spectrum. It must also be considered that university and government agronomic laboratories that routinely assay exchangeable nutrients are more read- ily accessible to U.S. archaeologists than are those that determine total nutrient concentrations.

Finally, Eidt recognizes that four factors can deter- mine total and fractional phosphate levels: the kind of activity and materials deposited (pp. 43, 59), the dura- tion of use of an area (p. 60), age (p. 43), and the intensity of use of a n area, sometimes as a function of population size (p. 43). However, in both theory and practice, stress is placed on interpreting P levels in terms of the kind of activity, without adequately or a t least explicitly elimi- nating the possible effects of the other factors. Also, length of use is confounded with age (p. 60).

These difficulties should not overshadow, however, the overall thorough and thoughtful nature of Eidt’s

study. I t is likely to stand as a model of soil-based settle- ment geographic analysis for the archaeological profes- sion for some time.

REFERENCES

Binford, L. R. (1977). General Introduction, in L. R. Binford, Ed., For Theory Building in Archaeology, pp. 1- 10. New York: Academic Press.

Carr, C. (1982). Soil Resistivity Surveying. Evanston, IL: Center for American Archaeology.

Limp, W. F. and Carr, C. (1985). The Analysis of Decision Making: Alternative Applications in Archaeology, in C. Carr, Ed., For Concordance in Archaeological Analysis, pp. 128- 172. Kansas City: Westport Press.

Christopher Carr Department of Anthropology

Arizona State University Tempe, Arizona 85287

The Knife River Flint Quarries: Excava- tions at Site 32DU508, Stanley A. Ahler, 1986, State Historical Society of North Da- kota, North Dakota Heritage Center, Bis- marck, 117 pp. (paper), $20.00.

Knife River flint is described as “one of the most significant lithic raw materials used by prehistoric peo- ples in all of North America.” Appropriately, this mono- graph is one of the most significant investigations yet conducted of a lithic source area. It describes a pilot study of flint procurement and reduction at site 32DU508, a quarry and workshop site in the Lynch Knife River Flint Quarry National Historic District, western North Dakota. Test excavations, although lim- ited to two weeks of field work, produced 1151 stone tools and cores, and well over 100,000 flakes. Analysis of this material was a formidable task, and much of the report is devoted to details concerning the methodology in- volved. This is consistent with a primary aim of the project: to develop field and analytical procedures to be used in future investigations in the Knife River flint quarry area.

Chapter I briefly summarizes previous investigations in the quarry area and states the goals of the present study. Chapter I1 provides a useful description of Knife River flint, and discusses its geological occurrence and archaeological distribution. The flint, a silicified lignite of Eocene age, is known to occur only as weathered pebbles, cobbles, and boulders in unconsolidated Qua- ternary deposits. Ahler suggests that i t was second only to Yellowstone obsidian in the size of the area in which it was used by prehistoric people. Use was most intense on the Northern Plains and in the Prairie Provinces of

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Canada, and seems to have peaked during the late Paleoindian and Late Plains Archaic Periods.

Chapter I11 discusses research questions that Ahler believes are appropriate in studies of lithic procurement areas. Organized into eleven broad topics, the list of specific questions is exhaustive. Possible strategies to pursue in answering many of these questions are outlined.

Chapter IV describes fieldwork at site 32DU508. The site consists of a quarry area (with a t least 40 well- defined quarry pits), and an adjacent knoll used for lithic reduction (recognized by pitted anvil stones and high concentrations of subsurface artifacts recovered during systematic augering). Test pits were situated in these two areas so as to maximize the information ob- tained in the brief time available. The stratigraphy of the site was complex and variable due to erosion and wind deposition, and to multiple episodes of quarrying, including reworking of spoil piles in search of flint cob- bles overlooked by earlier peoples. Descriptions and pro- file drawings are satisfactory, but the results of textural analyses are inexplicably hidden in a later chapter, amid descriptions of cores, pottery, and vertebrate remains.

Chapter V approaches the subject of artifact and ma- terial analysis first from a theoretical standpoint, then discusses the analytical techniques employed and the artifact types recovered. The latter include tested raw material, freehand hard hammer cores, bipolar cores, and bifacial tools discarded prior to completion. Ham- merstones and possible stone and bone digging tools were present, though not abundant. The excellent pho- tographs and clear definitions in this chapter make it a valuable resource for students of lithic technology.

Chapter VI brings stratigraphic data and analytical results to bear on the research goals ofthe project. Ahler estimates that the quarry originally contained 334,566, kg of natural Knife River flint, of which 61,066 kg were ultimately removed from the site area as tools and us- able flakes. An estimated 18,750 person days were in- volved in quarrying. Two periods of quarry activity are inferred from patination of artifacts, relationship of the deposits to a paleosol, a 14C date, and a small group of potsherds (the only time-diagnostic artifacts found at the site). Bifacial tool reduction was particularly impor- tant during the early history of the site, prior to 5000 yr B.P.; bipolar core reduction predominated during the later period of use. Changes in the locations at which activities were conducted (quarry vs. workshop) also occurred through time.

Chapter VII nicely summarizes the major contribu- tions of the study, and expands certain of the conclusions beyond the site to the Knife River flint primary-source area as a whole.

I have few criticisms of the monograph. Some readers will wish that there had been greater emphasis on chro- nology and environmental change, both listed by Ahler as worthwhile research problems. The site produced lit- tle firm chronological information. Charcoal was pres- ent in quantities too small for conventional radiocarbon dating, but critical samples could have been dated using accelerator-based mass spectrometry. Too little was done to explore the physical character, age, and paleoenvironmental significance of the paleosol(s) found in the quarry and workshop areas. These humus-

rich units are correlated with the Thompson Paleosol (ca. 5000-2500 B.P.) or Leonard Paleosol(13,000-8500 B.P.), but Ahler gives no supporting data. Future exca- vations should include field and laboratory studies by a soil scientist, a more aggressive program of radiocarbon dating, and analysis of phytoliths, molluscs, and pollen.

My initial reaction to Chapter VI, which draws sweep- ing conclusions from a woefully small data base, was one of dismay. But this chapter is perhaps the most valuable in the book. I t is important not for its specific conclusions (which the author himself regards as speculative, but for the directions in which i t leads. This is a pilot study, and Chapter VI clearly and intelligently lays out paths that our thought processes might profitably follow when the data base becomes larger.

The book is well produced and attractive, although printed on thin paper tha t allows “read-through” of dark copy. Maps, air photos, and artifact illustrations are particularly well done. Goals are clearly stated, and results clearly summarized. Ahler writes well.

In short, the monograph will be useful for many Plains archaeologists, and essential for anyone involved in, or contemplating, study of a lithic procurement site. Its major contribution is the clear methodological direc- tions that it provides for future studies. Its weaknesses (largely unavoidable within the contract context) result from the small size of the data base and the scarcity of geoarchaeological detail. I look forward to the results of Ahler’s future studies of this interesting quarry area.

James B. Benedict Center for Mountain Archeology

Ward, Colorado 80481 U.S.A.

The Pleistocene History of the Middle Thames Valley, Philip L. Gibbard, 1985, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., vii & 155 pp., $65.00.

For over a hundred years the Middle Thames Valley has been intensively investigated by archaeologists and geomorphologists. This book is, however, the first com- prehensive treatment of the geological aspects of the Quaternary deposits. These deposits are dominated by a series of altitudinally separable terrace gravels, the re- sult of repeated incision followed by aggradation. In the past the approach to classification and dating of the gravels has been morphological-based on the altitude of the terrace surfaces. This book should once-and-for- all emphasize the pitfalls of such a n approach. Underly- ing the terrace surfaces are deposits of many ages; in- deed, not infrequently do the gravels, representing cold-stage aggradation, contain organic lenses repre- senting interglacial or interstadial deposition. The adoption of sound stratigraphic techniques is essential to all geological and archaeological investigations.

The bulk of the book is occupied by detailed

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