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Evidence for Late Paleoindian Ritual from the Caradoc Site (AfHj-104), Southwestern Ontario, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

D. Brian Deller  and
Christopher J. Ellis
D. Brian Deller
Affiliation:
RR#4 Glencoe, Ontario, Canada N0L 1M0
Christopher J. Ellis
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6G 4V2
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Abstract

The Caradoc site, dating ca. 10,500 to 10,000 B.P., provides a rare glimpse of sacred ritual among the earliest well-documented inhabitants of the Americas. It is a kind of site never before reported, where the majority of the artifacts have been purposefully broken or sacrificed. The site yielded 302, mainly chert, lithic fragments that fit together to form at least 71 artifacts. The material includes an unfluted concave-based point, three bifacial knives, 31 unfinished bifaces, 27 unifaces and nine non-siliceous items. Distributional analyses indicate that: 1) the material was initially spread over an area of as much as 12 m2; 2) the items were constrained in their distribution and could have been in a structure; and 3) the artifacts were broken at the location where they were found.

Résumé

Résumé

El sitio Caradoc, que data de hace aproximadamente 10.500 a 10.000, provee una inusual oportunidad de examinar un ritual sagrado entre los más antiguos, de los bien documentados, habitantes de América. Es una clase de sitio que jamás ha sido reportada previamente, donde la mayoria de artefactos han sido quebrados о sacrificados a propósito. En este sitio se han encontrado solamente 302 fragmentas liticos, principalmente de pedernal, que calzan entre sí paraformar al menos 71 artifactos. El material incluye un punto de base cóncava no acanalada, trés cuchillos bifaciales, 31 bifaces no terminados, 27 unifaces y nueve articulos enpiedra de grano grueso. El análisis distributive indica que: (1) el material fue inicialmente dispersado en un área de hasta 12 m2; (2) los artícules fueron restringidos en su distributión y pudieron haber estado dentro de una estructura; y, (3) los artefactos fueron quebrados y abandonados en el suelo en el sito donde fueron recobrados.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 66 , Issue 2 , April 2001 , pp. 267 - 284
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2001

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