Florence-A chert end scrapers from the Lasley Vore (34TU65), Deer Creek (34KA3) and Longest (34JF1) sites and the eighteenth-century southern Plains hide trade

Abstract

The importance of stone end scrapers in southern Plains artifact assemblages increased from AD 1200 to the mid-1700s. With Native involvement in the French hide trade, beginning in the early eighteenth century, end scrapers of Florence-A chert underwent a series of changes designed to lessen the costs of hide production (Vehik et al. [2010]. The Plains Hide Trade: French Impact on Wichita Technology and Society. In Across a Great Divide, edited by Laura L. Scheiber and Mark D. Mitchell, pp. 149–173. University of Arizona Press, Tucson). Using data from the earlier study plus more recent analyses of other sites, we reinvestigate earlier ideas and introduce additional thoughts about how end scraper technology changed with Native involvement in the European world economy. Results reaffirm many of the earlier conclusions regarding technological changes in Florence-A chert end scrapers. We also explore unanticipated impacts of site formation processes, complexities of end scraper maintenance, and the ramifications of changing roles in the bison hide trade.