Decisions in the desert: an application of the field processing model to lithic toolstone procurement

Models generated under the umbrella of behavioral ecology have the potential to provide an explanatory framework for human behavior. The Field Processing Model is employed to elucidate the behavior of central place foragers in relation to the tradeoffs people made when procuring lithic resources. In this case, the tradeoffs relate to the decisions foragers made to optimize the utility of the load by choosing whether or not to field processes a resource package prior to returning the resource to a residential base, in light of transport time as inferred by distance. The Field Processing Model sets up expectations that should be identified in archaeological materials if foragers are meeting the assumptions inherent in the model. These expectations are investigated through the quantitative analysis of lithic debitage and geochemical obsidian sourcing of artifacts found deposited in archaeological sites away from the point of procurement. This allows for the identification of inferred transport distance. The study looks at a suite of archaeological sites found in the Sheeprock Mountains, located in the West Desert of Utah.