IDENTIFICATION AND ANALYSIS OF STYLISTIC VARIATION IN HARDIN BARBED POINTS (HARDIN PHASE, EARLY ARCHAIC, MISSISSIPPI VALLEY)

Patterning of stylistic variation in artifacts can be used to identify aspects of a society's social and spatial organization. The basis for inferring social and spatial organization from data on the geographic distribution of stylistic variation is examined in this study. Unlike other artifact classes, stylistically controlled morphological variation in chipped stone artifacts can not be easily and thoroughly separated from utilitarian and manufacturing constraints on shape and size. The methodology for recognizing stylistic variation in chipped stone artifacts is investigated. The Early Archaic state Hardin Phase of the midwestern United States provides the data for applying these methodologies.;Univariate analysis of individual morphological attributes was more successful at recognizing and identifying patterns of morphological variation in Hardin Barbed points. Discontinuous attributes appear to be more applicable than continuous attributes in this type of analysis.;Neither territoriality nor rigid social boundaries appear to have been present within the Hardin Phase. Based on the geographical patterns of morphological variation observed for Hardin Barbed points, a general relationship between decreasing social affinity and interaction intensity with increasing geographic separation between Hardin Phase groups is suggested. Residential mobility and social interaction appear to have been partially channeled along the major river drainage systems.;The Hardin Phase was a highly mobile hunting and gathering culture centered on the Middle Mississippi River Valley during the early Holocene. It is recognized by the co-occurrence and co-distribution of five distinctive artifact types. The most diagnostic of these is the Hardin Barbed point. Analysis of Hardin Barbed morphological variation and the geographic patterning of this variation is the basis for identifying the nature of Hardin Phase spatial organization.