This paper examines flake-size analyses and the type of information they produce. The prehistoric sites area located in central Oregon, an area rich in obsidian sources and lithic scatters compromise a major potion of prehistoric record.

Based on our study, we interpret Lava Butte to be an extensively used foraging base camp that was first inhabited during the Middle Archaic Period, but after the eruption of Lava Butte at 6,169 B.P., by human populations using Elko series dart points. Circumstantial evidence suggests multiple, spring through fall habitations occurring over a period of many centuries. Situated around a deep bedrock fault, the site was optimally located to take advantage of both forest and riverine resources. Lava Butte was subsequently occupied during the Late Archaic Period (after 2,000 B.P.) by populations first using Rosegate, then Desert Side-notched, projectile points. The relative scarcity of Late Archaic Period projectile points indicates that this habitation was more ephemeral and taskspecific than the Elko occupation. The site was apparently inhabited during the transition from atlatl to bow and arrow technologies in central Oregon. Abundant volcanic activity in the upper Deschutes River Basin may have initially inhibited extensive human settlement, but by the Middle Archaic Period, the volcanic terrain of the region provided attractive natural features and habitational settings that were important to survival on the High Lava Plains.

A chipped stone artifact cache recently recovered from the Pahoehoe site (35DS268) in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon offers an opportunity to: (1) demonstrate the culturally determined reduction system employed to manufacture the lanceolate-shaped biface artifacts found in the cache; (2) compare this production technology and biface cache with current interpretations of lanceolate biface assemblages; and (3) discuss the possible function of this biface cache technology.

We appreciate the opportunity to respond to Minor and Toepel's remarks concerning our article describing the Pahoehoe biface cache from central Oregon (Scott et al. 1986). As we understand their criticisms, they can be broken down into four issues: (1) our estimated age for the Pahoehoe cache; (2) their estimated age for the "early" habitation of Lava Island Rockshelter, as evidenced by a small lanceolate biface cache; (3) the antiquity of lanceolate biface caches in this region; and (4) the function of the Pahoehoe and related caches. Each is addressed below.