Like Blood from a Stone: Teasing out Social Difference from Lithic Production Debris at Kolomoki

Early phases of Kolomoki’s occupation have been previously characterized as
relatively egalitarian, with little evidence for economic or social differentiation.
However, patterned variability in lithic raw material use and intensity of
production in domestic areas suggests heterogeneity in the community at
multiple scales. In light of Kolomoki’s proposed emphasis on communal
ceremony, internal divisions between groups of households highlight the tension
between public and private expressions of social difference and cohesion in early
villages. New radiocarbon dates from the southern margins of the village have
allowed us to assess the contemporaneity of these patterns, and by extension,
the chronology of village aggregation.