Bipolar flaking as a means of reducing lithic raw material is known to have occurred since the time of the Lower Palaeolithic. As a strategy for working small bits of raw material, it is probable that it has a variety of important selective contexts. Assemblages from northeastern United States Paleo-Indian sites are used to test the hypothesis that bipolar artifacts in these systems represent a method of extending the utility of a transported, highly curated lithic toolkit through recycling. It is shown that what have been called pièces esquillées among these sites are in all probability cores for the derivation of small flakes. This is demonstrated by citing ethnoarcheological and technological data and by a spatial-statistical analysis of the distribution of “pièces esquillées” at the Debert site. The methodological problems related to the accurate functional identification of artifacts are explored and their impacts on archaeological arguments are also discussed. Also discussed are the difficulties in interpreting site activities on the basis of inter site differences in tool frequencies and proportions where assemblages have been affected by lithic recycling. Last, the theoretical significance of recycling through bipolar reduction is outlined as a strategy for solving the raw material and tool replacement problems as conditioned by Paleo-Indian settlement and technological systems.
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