Thickness and Fluting of Paleo-Indian Projectile Points

1963 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Fitting

AbstractA statistical examination of Paleo-Indian projectile points and bases from the Holcombe (Michigan) and Scharbauer (Texas) sites shows that basal modification, thinning to fluting, is distributed throughout the range of thickness. It is possible that fluted points were considerably thicker before fluting, but this is untestable and, since the present populations have a normal distribution, seems unlikely.

1951 ◽  
Vol 17 (1Part1) ◽  
pp. 9-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben C. Mccary

David I. Bushnell, Jr., first aroused wide interest in the fluted points found in Virginia. He accomplished this primarily by an article in the June 9, 1934 issue of the Literary Digest, in which he announced the discovery of “two Folsom points” in Virginia. This article and subsequent references to these two “points of recognized Folsom type” (Bushnell, 1935, pp. 35-6, 56) called special attention to the importance and possibilities of such finds in the East. In 1934, only one collector of Virginia projectile points, Arthur Robertson of Chase City, Virginia, could claim “five or more” of these fluted points (Wells, 1935, pp. 1, 14). However, the intense interest which Bushnell created stimulated a search in Virginia for this rare type of point, with the result that shortly after Bushnell's 1934 announcement, sporadic finds of fluted points having a resemblance to both the Folsom Fluted and the Clovis Fluted began to be noted in various parts of the State. Their occurrence seemed to indicate that there actually was a paleo-Indian in Virginia.


2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (16) ◽  
pp. 4116-4121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather L. Smith ◽  
Ted Goebel

Fluted projectile points have long been recognized as the archaeological signature of early humans dispersing throughout the Western Hemisphere; however, we still lack a clear understanding of their appearance in the interior “Ice-Free Corridor” of western Canada and eastern Beringia. To solve this problem, we conducted a geometric morphometric shape analysis and a phylogenetic analysis of technological traits on fluted points from the archaeological records of northern Alaska and Yukon, in combination with artifacts from further south in Canada, the Great Plains, and eastern United States to investigate the plausibility of historical relatedness and evolutionary patterns in the spread of fluted-point technology in the latest Pleistocene and earliest Holocene. Results link morphologies and technologies of Clovis, certain western Canadian, and northern fluted points, suggesting that fluting technology arrived in the Arctic from a proximate source in the interior Ice-Free Corridor and ultimately from the earliest populations in temperate North America, complementing new genomic models explaining the peopling of the Americas.


1989 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-66
Author(s):  
Shawn D. Haley

The earliest cultures of North America produced exquisitely made fluted projectile points. Over time, projectile points became progressively more crude in form and workmanship. A common explanation for this apparent regression is that native North American stone workers “lost the art of fine flint knapping.” This hypothesis is questioned and an alternative offered. It is suggested that regression had not occurred. Rather, there had been a shift in epistemological importance away from projectile points into more relevant areas for those more recent cultures. Points simply were no longer important to them.


1998 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas H. Loy ◽  
E. James Dixon

Blood residues have been microscopically and chemically detected on fluted projectile points from eastern Beringia. From these residues a variety of large mammal species, including mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), have been identified using biochemical and molecular-biological methods. This is the first time a direct association has been made between the use of fluted projectile points and human predation of extinct fauna and other large Pleistocene mammals in arctic and subarctic North America. This suggests the northern fluted-point assemblages are part of the Paleoindian big-game hunting tradition that was widespread in North America at the close of the Pleistocene.


1999 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliet E. Morrow ◽  
Toby A. Morrow

This paper examines geographic variation in fluted point morphology across North and South America. Metric data on 449 North American points, 31 Central American points, and 61 South American points were entered into a database. Ratios calculated from these metric attributes are used to quantify aspects of point shape across the two continents. The results of this analysis indicate gradual, progressive changes in fluted point outline shape from the Great Plains of western North America into adjacent parts of North America as well as into Central and South America. The South American “Fishtail” form of fluted point is seen as the culmination of incremental changes in point shape that began well into North America. A geographically gradual decline in fluting frequency also is consistent with the stylistic evolution of the stemmed “Fishtail” points. Although few in number, the available radiocarbon dates do suggest that “Fishtail” fluted points in southern South America are younger than the earliest dates associated with Clovis points in western North America. All of these data converge on the conclusion that South American “Fishtail” points evolved from North American fluted points.


1954 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melvin L. Fowler

Fluted points, like many other artifacts, seem to be more common than previously thought. Once attention is called to a given item representative specimens are 'found in existing collections only waiting to be recognized. Smail (1951) has presented a discussion of many points of this type from the St. Louis area in Illinois.Recently several interesting specimens have been brought to the Illinois State Museum and are here illustrated, due to their unusual combination of attributes and location. The first of these (Fig. 57) was found in Fulton County in 1924 by the late Frank Aidrich of Bloomington, Illinois. It is lanceolate in shape, WA inches long, 114 inches wide about % of the length from the base, and lenticular in cross section. Its very delicate chipping produced parallel long flake scars running from each edge to the center. The base is ground on each side and across the bottom.


1958 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
George I. Quimby

Fluted projectile points of chipped flint have been found occasionally in Michigan and Wisconsin. Most, if not all of these, closely resemble the Clovis style of fluted point found in the west. There is some evidence indicating that the western Clovis points belong to a period older than 8000 B.C. A number of archaeologists, myself included, have assumed that the eastern varieties of fluted points are of approximately the same order of antiquity as the western points.


1966 ◽  
Vol 31 (5Part1) ◽  
pp. 644-661 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J Mayer-Oakes

AbstractSurface collecting in 1960 and excavations in 1961 have produced a large sample of chipped obsidian tools from El Inga, a site in Highland Ecuador. From a total surface collection sample of 83 projectile points, 25 complete and 3 nearly complete specimens have been examined intensively. They are described here by precise line drawings and narrative statements about the presence or absence and quantity or quality of morphological and technological attributes within the five attribute systems of material, form, dimension, chipping, and grinding. The three major projectile point styles derived here — “Fell's Cave Stemmed,” “Ayampitin,” and “Paijan” — are interpreted as representing horizon markers in South American preceramic times. The “Fell's Cave Stemmed” style is earliest and shows some technological relationships to the "fluted" points of North America.


1953 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles C. Di Peso

The primary purpose of this paper is to report the finding of two Clovis Fluted points in southeastern Arizona and hence to further define the geographical range of the hunting complex represented by these points. The secondary purpose is to define the characteristics of the two points in question, for they closely resemble the eight points found at Naco, Arizona.Haury and others (p. 1 ff.) report the finding of eight Clovis Fluted points in the near vicinity of Naco, in southeastern Arizona. This (American Antiquity, Vol. 18, No. 1, p. 91) was the first reported find of these fluted points in this area. The importance of the find was emphasized by the fact that the projectile points were found in direct association with the skeletal remains of Mammuthus (Parelephas) columbi (Haury, “The Naco Mammoth,” The Kiva, Vol. 18, Nos. 3-4, 1952, p. 17).


Antiquity ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (285) ◽  
pp. 507-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Anderson ◽  
Michael K. Faught

The distribution of projectile points over broad geographic areas yields important insights about Palaeoindian settlement pattern and history. While traditionally viewed as a Great Plains adaptation, the data show that fluted points are far more common in Eastern North America. These artefacts are not evenly spread across the landscape, furthermore, but occur in distinct concentrations. Within some of these areas distinct cultural traditions quickly emerged, something that appears tied to the sudden onset of the Younger Dryas.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document