home > TRiO and USP Programs > McNair > symposium > 2001 presentations > Eric White

Eric White
Anthropology

Brian O’Neill, Mentor
Dennis Jenkins, Mentor

Footprints in Stone: Analysis Of Lithic Debitage And Stone Tools From Lava Tube Caves On The Eastern Snake River Plain of Southern Idaho

This study is a comparative analysis using chipped stone tools and waste flakes recovered from archeological sites within two ice caves and their adjacent surface sites in southern Idaho. Human occupation at the 10MA143 lava tube site spans at least 4000 years, whereas the 10LN74 site has a relatively brief history of roughly 2100 years. The methods of study include: low power microscopic edge-wear analysis to establish the function of the tools recovered from the sites, blood residue analysis to establish the types of animal protein found on the stone tools, and debitage analysis to determine from the waste flakes the lithic reduction activities that were carried out at the site. The research will give a better picture of overall subsistence activities carried out in the region. The current research draws from the work of Anthroplogy Ph.D. student Suzann Henrikson, who is doing field work in southern Idaho.