In this thesis, I discuss the analysis of lithic materials from the McKeithen site, a Weeden Island Period mound and village complex in North Florida which at its peak of complexity was the home of an advanced tribal or proto-chiefdom level society. I use flintknapping experimentation as an aid in determining the McKeithen knappers' strategies of raw material procurement, heat treatment, and reduction. I document the heat treatment of the lithic materials through the use of scanning electron microscopy. I then use the findings of previous archaeological studies of lithic reduction in rank societies to construct a model of how lithic reduction might be organized at the McKeithen site. I suggest and test the hypothesis that the manufacture of flaked stone tools became more specialized as McKeithen society became larger and more complex, then less specialized as the site's population declined.

The findings of the hypothesis testing generally support the model. I interpret increased spatial clustering of the debitage and spatial differentiation of reduction stages during the period of greatest cultural complexity as evidence of increasing lithic specialization. Increased proportions and spatial clustering of heat treated and hinge fractured debitage also appear to reflect increasing specialization. Subsequent decreases in spatial clustering of the debitage, in reduction stage differentiation, and in proportion and spatial clustering of heat treated debitage are consistent with decreasing lithic specialization as the McKeithen population decreased.