Folsom Stone Tool Distribution at the Mountaineer Block C Dwelling: Indoor and Outdoor Spaces as Activity Areas

Abstract

Spatial analysis of the Mountaineer Block C Folsom tool assemblage is presented to investigate how a dwelling structure may have influenced where prehistoric people decided to work. Although no statistically significant difference in the toolkits from inside and outside contexts was found, patterns of significance were detected among individual tool types, particularly scrapers and projectile points. These tool types were apparently utilized more often in certain locations. We offer comparisons from the ethnographic and ethnohistoric records of modern hunter-gatherer behavior at campsites, and suggest significant differences in tool distribution occurred when activities were dictated by amount of space required and when processing byproducts would have contaminated indoor spaces. An overall lack of difference in indoor/outdoor tool assemblages supports the idea that dwellings did not necessarily determine use of space by prehistoric peoples, and activities and sets of activities were carried out in both indoor and outdoor spaces.