ESTIMATING FAILURE RATES IN FLUTING BASED ON ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA - EXAMPLES FROM NE NORTH-AMERICA

The fluting of Early Paleo-Indian bifaces and associated failure rates have received considerable archaeological attention-perhaps at a scal e exceeding its comparative importance. Nonetheless, if we are to prop erly evaluate explanations of the origins and purpose of fluting and t he functions of particular sites in Paleo-Indian settlement systems, e stimates of failure rates are required. To date, such estimates have b een based largely on experimental replication and rarely on archaeolog ical data, and it is suggested the experimental estimates are inaccura te. In order to overcome these problems, three interrelated, yet indep endent, methods of estimating fluting failure rates from archaeologica l data are developed and applied to data from the Parkhill site in Ont ario and the Windy City site in Maine. The consistency in the results obtained by these methods inspires faith in their relative accuracy. T he results suggest failure rates, at least at these sites, were not on the scale often assumed by previous investigators, being on the order of only 10-15% or less.