| Functional typologies have been used to define and categorize artifacts in archaeology from the very beginning of the discipline. However the use of functional typologies has come under fire recently. They can constrain interpretation and limit the ability of a collection to yield important information regarding the past. Such a large constraint is especially relevant for collections that lack detailed provenience. The Corditaipe Site, a small Paleoindian encampment in the Mohawk Valley in Central New York, is an example of a collection lacking precise provenience data. The most abundant artifact recovered from Corditaipe was the end scraper. Within the category of end scrapers is a functional type known as spurred end scrapers. This thesis hypothesizes that spurred end scrapers result from heavy use and maintenance processes rather than from a conscious technological path that created a function-specific tool appendage (the spur). |
