Systemic Change and Lithic Debris: the Nine Mile Creek Survey

Data from 55 archaeological sites located during the course of a survey of a portion of Nine Mile Creek northeast of Lawrence, Kansas were analyzed as the focus of a seminar at the University of Kansas in 1969. The recognition of significant variation in lithic debris samples from the Nine Mile Creek sites resulted in the development of a seriational procedure and an explana tory model in terms of temporally changing subsistence patterns. In 1968, a group of students from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kansas conducted an intensive survey of a three mile segment of the valley floor and surrounding bluff tops along Nine Mile Creek northeast of Lawrence, Kansas (Fig. 1). Nine Mile Creek is a tributary of the larger Stranger Creek, which in turn flows into the Kansas River approximately 12 miles east of Lawrence. The section of Nine Mile Creek which was surveyed is six miles upstream from the junction with Stranger Creek. The valley of Nine Mile Creek averages one-third of a mile in width within the survey area. It is bounded on the east and west by limestone bluffs with interbedded bands of chert. Evidences of glacial episodes are present in the form of a mantle of detritus which occasion ally overlies the limestone. Fifty-five archaeological sites were located in the three mile survey area along Nine Mile Creek. A majority of the sites are on the valley floor, although a few also occur on surrounding bluff tops. The valley floor was searched more thor oughly than the bluff tops, so in part this seeming concentration may be a reflection of variations in sampling. Other archaeological sur veys conducted in this section of Kansas (Univer sity of Kansas, Museum of Anthropology files), however, indicate a similar concentration of sites on valley floors, so it is believed the differential in site distribution recorded during the Nine Mile Creek survey is a fair representation of the real situation. Data recorded and collected during the course of the survey provided the substantive basis for a seminar in analytical archaeology conducted dur ing the academic year of 1969-1970. Nine students participated in analyses of the data, which included specific information on the size and location of archaeological sites and collec tions of material culture from each. Site size was estimated from the extent of surface scatter, an estimation made possible by the fact that most of the sites are now plowed farm fields. Collec tions were for the most part grab samples, although an attempt was made to collect from the entire surface of each site and to collect a large sample of all readily observable types of debris. Numbers of items available for study from each site ranged from 50 to 3005. In a few instances, more careful samples were drawn by superimposing a grid on the site and collecting all items of cultural debris from each unit of the grid. During the analyses of the collections, a bias towards the presence of quantities of lithic debris and towards the absence of artifacts with known cultural-historical distributions soon became ob vious. This bias, undoubtedly a reflection of intensive collecting activities of local amateurs, resulted in a situation wherein only 36 of the 55 sites located by the survey provided collections which included artifacts with known cultural historical distributions. Initial analytical efforts were thus centered on these 36 sites, resulting in the recognition of the presence of three named cultural-historical units in the survey area: the Archaic, Plains Woodland, and Central Plains traditions. Artifacts assignable to the Archaic tradition