Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called 
Determining how artifacts make their way into the archaeological record is an important concern for archaeologists. Classifying them afterwards is just as important. The Crow Canyon e-Newsletter has an interesting example of some lateral cycling, or perhaps reuse would be a better word.
The Albert Porter Pueblo was occupied from the Basketmaker III period (A.D. 500-750) to the Pueblo III (A.D. 1150-1300) with the most intensive occupation being in Pueblo II and Pueblo III. What does this have to do with turkey? Or recycling of artifacts? Let's back up a second. According to Schiffer, primary refuse consists of material discarded at it's location of use. Secondary refuse consists of material where the location of discard is different from it's location of use. Recycling refers to using an element, after completion of it's use cycle, in the manufacturing process of another element. An example will make this clear. Some groups would grind down pot sherds to use as grit in the manufacture of new pots. Lateral cycling refers to the termination of an element's use-life in one set of activities and it's resumption in another. Think hand-me-downs or re-gifting that fruit cake you got last year.
With that in mind let's talk about turkeys. Because turkeys lack teeth to grind their food they usually swallow small stones and what not. Such items end up in the turkeys' gizzard. In the case of turkies at Albert Porter Pueblo the turkies were using cultural materials. This includes chunks of masonry, pottery shards, partially worked sandstone (from broken sandstone grining tools), and projectile points:
Interestingly, two gizzard stones from Albert Porter Pueblo were also made from two projectile points. One is a tiny, deeply notched chalcedony point, distinctly shaped by a flintknapper. Unfortunately, some enterprising turkey snatched it up while no one was watching.
So, here is a pop quiz. Are the gizzard stones that come from cultural materials:
a) Primary Refuse
b) Secaondary Refuse
Do they represent:
a) Recycling
b) Lateral Cycling
Do you categorize them as:
a) cultural artifacts
b) faunal items and pass them off to zooarchaeologists - who love this kind of stuff?
Here is the Crow Canyon Archaeological Centers' answer:
You may ask, shouldn't we classify these artifacts as projectile points, flakes, groundstone, or pottery? The staff at Crow Canyon must determine the last use to which an artifact was put. In this case, the turkey recyclers have the final claim. They're all gizzard stones!
P.S. No fair peeking at the answer before you take the quiz!
Comments
hey i was just wondering if you could tell me what these stones are i have found a few more around the same area they are perfectly egg shaped eggs or artifacts please help me thanks
Posted by: tyler johnson | May 18, 2007 3:45 PM