“Arrowheads” are among the most commonly encountered and collected of all the artifact classes. They are found on archaeological sites throughout North America and are well represented in Minnesota’s private and institutional collections. The word arrowhead is inappropriate in many respects because it implies direct and/or indirect associations to specific culture complexes, particularly those related to bow-and-arrow hunting. The truth of the matter is, bow-and-arrow technology did not occur until quite late in North American prehistory. Consequently many stone tools are incorrectly assumed by their owners to have once been used as “arrowheads” when, in fact, they more than likely were used as spear or dart points. In order to eliminate the confusion and misconceptions brought about by such a specific label, archaeologists have adopted the more generalized term, projectile point, which applies to all forms of chipped stone projectile tips.
Typically, spear and dart points are larger, heavier, and more rugged in structure than arrow points. Because of their bulk they were more likely to withstand the force of heavier impacts and glancing or misdirected blows. These heavier points were either hafted directly to stout wooden poles with leather or plant-fiber cordage or tendon sinew; or they were lashed to small dart shafts which were then inserted into a socket at the end of a wooden spear handle.
Spears and dart-spears were propelled either by a direct, forceful thrust, a javelin-like throw or they were hurled with the aid of an atlatl, a handle-like device that served as an extension to the arm. A perforated butterfly-shaped stone called a bannerstone was placed at the far end of the atlatl to increase the weight and leverage behind the throw. Spears and darts were designed to inflict deep gash wounds and, once imbedded, to aggravate the wound and keep blood flowing freely. Death by spear wound was a long, terrible process and often times was more the result of weakening through loss of blood than damage to vital organ. Hours, even days might pass before an animal would wholly surrender to its wounds or be sufficiently weakened to be brought down for the final kill.
Arrow points on the other hand are typically smaller, thinner and better adapted for use with lighter, string-propelled shafts. Their small size and light weight helped to streamline the arrow and increase the accuracy of its trajectory. They were often made from small flakes of chert that were struck off a flake core with a stone or antler hammer, and then were shaped by pressure flaking, a high precision flaking technique which employed a hand-held punching tool made of bone, antler or wood. The end of the punch was placed at the desired point along the edge of the tool and pressure was applied; then, with a quick sidewards snapping motion a flake was detached. Once formed, the point was sharpened using the marginal retouch technique whereby a series of tiny pressure flakes was removed along the blade margins to create more acute or serrated edges. A well-placed arrow was capable of inflicting a deep piercing wound that could penetrate well into the region of the vital organs for more instant results.
Having established the differences between the various forms of hunting implements that were used in prehistory, we can now look more closely at some of the many different projectile point types that are sometimes found on Minnesota sites. The discussion that follows will consider projectile points within the context of Minnesota’s major prehistoric cultural periods, which are the Paleo-Indian, 10,000-6,000 B.C.; Archaic, 6,000-1,000 B.C.; Woodland, 1,000 B.C. - A.D. 1800; and Mississippian\Oneota A.D. 900 - 1800).
Paleo-Indian Period
(Figures 1-9) The earliest human occupation of Minnesota occurred at the end of the Pleistocene, or Ice Age about 12,000 years ago. At that time the landscape of Minnesota appeared quite different from the way it looks today. Spruce parklands, open coniferous forests mixed with grasses, spread over portions of the state that had not long since been covered by a massive sheet of ice; and great lakes and rivers were formed by the waters from the melting glacial ice. Animals long extinct or absent from Minnesota such as mammoth, mastodon, horse, giant beaver, elk and ground sloth, roamed freely with herds of deer, caribou, and moose. It was into this beautiful, ever-changing, and difficult environment that the first small bands of Paleo-Indian Big Game hunters ventured.The Paleo-Indians were highly mobile following the movements of the herds. Their camps were small and occupied only for short periods and because of limited resources they traveled in small groups of perhaps 10 to 20 people which would come together occasionally to trade and celebrate ceremonial events. The Paleo-Indian period is divided into two cultural groupings, the Llano (early) and the Plano (late), which are largely distinguished by their stone tool industries. The entire Paleo-Indian period is noted for the fine craftsmanship of its stone tools. The projectile points are highly homogeneous in nature. They are very well made with symmetrical, lanceolate (leaf shaped) blades that required a high degree of flintknapping skill to produce.
Llano projectile points are unique from those of later prehistoric stone tool industries in that the Paleo-Indian hunters used a technique known as fluting. It was a delicate procedure which required a great deal of skill. Fluting was the last step in the flintknapping process and was accomplished by carefully preparing and detaching a large flake, or series of smaller flakes, from one or both faces of the artifact. Successful fluting produced deep, broad scars or channels that ran from the base, or proximal end of the point to as far as the opposite or distal end. This thinned the blade considerably making the hafting process easier. Another practice commonly identified with the early tool-making traditions was grinding the basal edges to prevent wear and cutting of the binding material.
Two highly recognized stone Llano points that occur in the North America are Clovis (Fig.1*) and Folsom (Fig.2). Clovis points are the earlier of the two and are occasionally found in association with mammoth remains in the southern plains of the United States. They range in size from one to five inches in length. Folsom points occur on later sites in association with the remains of extinct bison, and are typically smaller and broader with broad flutes that cover one or both of the blade surfaces. Very few Llano points have been found in Minnesota. Clovis finds have been reported for Hennepin, Rock/Noble, Fillmore, and Murray Counties; and specimens of Folsom points have been reported in Sherburne, Stearns, Freeborn, and Washington Counties.
By 8,000 B.C. projectile points of the Llano culture group gave way to those of the Plano. Plano points are variable in size ranging from one to five inches in length. However they are quite distinguishable by their long lanceolate or stemmed lanceolate blades and by the fine parallel flaking that appears across the blade surfaces. There are a number of projectile points associated with the Plano culture which are based on subtle differences in outline, flaking technology, their regionality and chronological placement within the late Paleo-Indian period. Figures 3 through 9 portray the different Plano types that have been found in Minnesota, they are: Angostura, Agate Basin, Brown’s Valley, Hell Gap, Alberta, Scottsbluff (classic western form), and Scottsbluff (eastern variety). Plano points appear frequently in private surface collections throughout the state, but very few have been excavated in situ. The East Terrace site in Benton County, the Greenbush site in Roseau County, Bradbury Brook site in Mille Lacs County, the Brown’s Valley site in Traverse County, and the Cedar Creek site in Aitken County are among the few exceptions.
Archaic Period
(Figures 10-22) Toward the end of the Late Paleo-Indian period the climate, which had up to then been moist and cool, began to become warmer and drier. The great hardwood forests that had replaced the spruce forests at the close of the Pleistocene, were themselves retreating north and east in advance of rapidly expanding prairie grasslands. The lakes and rivers that had been formed and swollen by the glacial melt-waters began to shrink or dry up completely. The Big Game herd animals, like the mammoth and mastodon, had long since perished - victims of the changing environment and the hunters spear. Smaller herd animals such as bison, deer, and elk that were better adapted to survive the rigors of their dynamic surroundings now thrived in the prairie grasslands and northern deciduous forests of mid continental United States.The people were also forced to adapt to the whims of their ever changing environment. Hunters of the Archaic period were still highly nomadic. They still relied on migratory animals as their primary diet staple, and as a source of bone and hides for their tools and clothing. However as they became more familiar with their environment they began to supplement their diet with locally available plants and animals. This trend toward increased resource diversification, known as hunting and gathering was probably, in part, initiated by the pressures of an slowly increasing population. The size of individual groups more than likely remained relatively constant, however the number of groups, and consequently the population as a whole, probably began to increase gradually by the late Archaic. This meant increasing competition for available resources. The exploitation of nuts, berries, seeds, fish and shell fish, fowl, and a host of small animals became increasingly intensified toward the end of the Archaic period.
Diversification of resource exploitation and the development of new technologies resulted in the appearance of new and specialized tools which were added to the traditional toolkit. Bannerstone weights signal the introduction of the atlatl and ground-stone axes, manos and matates (grinding slabs and stones) demonstrate the increased reliance on vegetable resources. As new tools were introduced the old tools were subject to change. For instance projectile points of the Archaic period, though still very well made, exhibit a noticeable decline in the level of skill required to produce them when compared to points of the Paleo-Indian period. Fine patterned flaking strategies were abandoned for more random techniques. Styles became more numerous and heterogeneous in nature as the old tool-making traditions evolved and new ones developed.
The Archaic has been sub-divided into three stages of cultural development: Early (ca.6,000 B.C. to ca.5,000 B.C.), Middle (ca.5,000 B.C. to ca. 3,000 B.C.) and Late (ca. 3,000 B.C. to ca. 1,000 B.C.) and each is remarkable for the uniqueness of their stone tool industries. The Early Archaic was a time of cultural transition during which vestiges of the earlier Paleo-Indian period persisted into the emerging Archaic cultural tradition. During the initial part of the paleo/archaic transition the lanceolate blade outline and complex flaking strategies were retained (Fig.10); but gradually new notched and stemmed varieties and less complicated flintknapping strategies replaced them completely (Figs. 11-13).
Projectile points of the Early Archaic transition are medium to large in size. Traits particularly diagnostic of projectile points from this period are steep alternate edge sharpening of the blade which creates a very angular, rhomohedral cross-section, the removal of small thinning flakes along the basal edge, and heavy grinding along the haft element edges. Figures 10 to 13 represent some Early Archaic forms that have been found in Minnesota they are Dalton, Thebes, St. Charles, and Hardin. Early Archaic projectile points are occasional found on the surface and noted in private collections from across Minnesota, however, like Paleo-Indian points, they are rarely found in situ. The Itasca Bison Kill site in Clearwater County and the Granite Falls Bison Kill site in Yellow Medicine County are two of the few Early Archaic sites known in Minnesota.
From 4,500 B.C. to around 2,000 B.C. the North American continent experienced a climatic maximum known as the Altithermal during which the average annual temperatures were much higher and the average annual precipitation was much lower. This event corresponded roughly with Middle Archaic and the maximum expansion of the prairie grasslands. At the beginning of the Middle Archaic projectiles of the paleo-archaic transition were being superseded by well-made, medium to large projectiles known collectively as Archaic side-notched points (Fig. 14). Several types make up the Archaic side-notched category including Tama, Oxbow (Fig. 20), Simonsen, Little Sioux, and Parkdale Eared and many persisted well into the Late Archaic and beyond. Middle Archaic points are common throughout Minnesota and are highly represented in private collections.
Toward the end of the Archaic period the climate began to stabilize, becoming more temperate and much like it is today. As this happened the once nomadic Archaic groups, who were learning to exploit their environment to full advantage, were becoming increasingly semi-sedentary in their lifestyle. They followed the seasonal cycles, knew prime locations of desired resources, and, at peak harvesting periods, would move between the different resource areas, re-occupying old seasonal base camps or establishing new ones when they arrived. This increased centralization of activity may have provided the opportunity for occasional experiments in small garden horticulture and plant domestication which would become more intensified later in the Woodland period.
Perhaps the most significant cultural development to occur in Upper Midwest at this time was the introduction of metal tools made of Great Lakes copper. The “Old Copper Complex” flourished in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario and Minnesota from around 3,000 B.C. until about 1,000 B.C. and featured a traditional Archaic toolkit supplemented by other projectile points, awls, and crescent-shaped knives made of hammered copper. These were highly valued items and because of their rarity and the tremendous amount of work involved to create them, traditional tool forms made of chipped stone, bone, ground stone continued to be used in great numbers.
The Osceola point is a chipped stone projectile most commonly identified with the “Old Copper Complex” (Fig.15). They have narrow, lanceolate shaped blades up to six inches in length, and deep, u-shaped side-notches placed near the base. Raddatz points (Fig. 16), similar in outline but smaller than Osceola points, are also believed to be related to the “Old Copper Complex.” The most important and best known Old Copper Complex site in Minnesota is at Petega Point in Mille Lacs County. However, the stone points recovered there had a stronger resemblance to Late Archaic side-notched and stemmed forms.
The technological explosion and specialization that occurred during the Archaic can certainly be seen by the diversity in stone tool types that are known from the later stages. Tool specialization is implied by the increase in the different types, also by the appearance of non-utilitarian forms like the Turkey Tail that were too finely made and delicate to serve a utilitarian purpose (Fig.17). In fact it is believed that Turkey Tails were used during ceremonies or were included as grave furniture during burial of the dead. They are most common along the Ohio river and when found in Minnesota are usually made of exotic materials like Indiana Hornstone, Cobden flint from eastern Illinois, or Hixton quartzite from central Wisconsin.
The development, persistence, and occasional mixing of regional tool traditions has generated some confusion for archaeologists trying to sort out cultural development of the Late Archaic. Side-notched, stemmed, and corner-notched points of various shapes and sizes - and even the occasional lanceolate, are recovered from Late Archaic components in the Midwest. Specific forms identified with the Late Archaic in Minnesota include: Turkey Tail, Durst, McKean, Pelican Lake, and Table Rock (Figs. 17 -19, 21- 22). To this list should be added earlier forms like Raddatz, Oxbow and Archaic side-notch (Figs. 14, 16 and 20) which are known to continue into later times. Late Archaic components have been tentatively identified at the Canning site in Norman County, the Petaga Point site in Mille Lacs County, and the East Terrace site in Benton County.
Woodland Period (Figures 23-34 and 37) By about 1,000 B.C. two new innovations appear ed that marked the end of the Archaic and the beginning of the Woodland period. They are the introduction of pottery and the construction of burial mounds. At first ceramic technology and mound burials were only embellishments to the existing culture and did not result in a radical shift in lifestyle. In fact little changed - people continued to hunt and gather as they had in the Archaic. The nucleus of Woodland cultural development was in the east-central part of the United States in Ohio, Indiana, and eastern Illinois. There, new cultural ideas, artifacts, and artifact styles were being developed and dispersed along the major river valleys to geographically marginal areas like Minnesota, where they were either assimilated or rejected. Three stages of Woodland tradition cultural development are recognized in these core areas: the Early Woodland (ca. 1,000 B.C. to ca. 100 B.C.), the Middle Woodland (ca. 100 B.C. to ca. A.D. 500), and the Late Woodland (ca. A.D. 500 to ca. A.D. 1800).The ceramic industry of Early Woodland is characterized by very thick walled pottery known as Marion Thick and Black Sand Incised. These two styles are usually found with medium-sized, straight-, and contracting-stemmed projectiles points. However, the thick walled pottery of the Early Woodland is extremely scarce in Minnesota. Early Woodland potsherds are occasionally found on sites in southeastern Minnesota, two of the best known being the La Moille Rock Shelter near Minona and the Schilling site on Gray Cloud Island near Hastings. Projectile points typically identified with the Early Woodland, like Kramer, Waubesa, Dickson (Figs. 23-25) and Adena (not pictured), are frequently found at them but without Early Woodland ceramic associations.
The conspicuous absence of Early Woodland sites raises the question “Did the prehistoric inhabitants of Minnesota experience an Early Woodland stage or were the associated innovations of mound building and ceramic technology gradually integrated, becoming prevalent cultural components only after other Midwestern groups had passed into the Middle Woodland period? Faced with this dilemma many Minnesota archaeologists prefer to divide Minnesota’s Woodland period into Initial and Terminal stages.
As the Woodland period progressed, cultural regionalization - a trend that appears to have started as early as the Late Archaic, became much more evident. As groups aggregated in Minnesota’s diverse environmental zones, distinctive local ceramic traditions, settlement patterns, and subsistence strategies emerged. The reduced mobility brought about by regionalization, though in many ways highly advantageous, did mean greater restrictions on resource availability. People had to make do with what they could find locally and supplement it the best they could with vegetables like squash, cenopods, and maize grown in small family gardens. In northern Minnesota wild rice was becoming increasingly important as a dietary staple. Resource restriction, and to a certain extent cultural confinement, stimulated the development of trade routes which facilitated the flow of cultural ideas over great distances.
In many respects prehistoric Minnesota was at the hub of a vast cultural-communications network. Native people were exposed to influences from every direction: the western plains, the northern forests, the Great Lakes, and the major rivers to the southeast. Whether new ideas were accepted or not was a matter of their practicality. In the east-central United States a new cultural group, the Hopewell, emerged and through the mechanisms of long-distance trade, fluoresced throughout the eastern United States. Meanwhile in the western plains, a firmly entrenched tradition based on bison hunting flourished as it had since the Late Paleo-Indian period.
Projectile points from this period are highly variable and often reflect the sphere of influence to which the owner had been directly or indirectly exposed. In the east many of the earlier medium-sized, stemmed and side-notched forms were discontinued and replaced by new ones such as Steuben, Robbins, and Snyders (Figs. 26-27, 30). Along side of these new types were many of the generalized side-notched varieties that had survived from the Middle to Late Archaic. By the time Hopewellian influence filtered into Minnesota from the southeast via the Mississippi River and from the west via the Missouri, it had been pretty “watered down” and did not appear to have a great impact on resident groups. Local pottery traditions, subsistence strategies, settlement patterns all remained relatively the same. However many of the new projectile point types, like those mentioned above, were adopted.
On the other hand the projectile points from the western plains seem to follow a developmental continuum all their own beginning in the Late Archaic and continuing well into the Late Woodland. Hopewellian forms do occasionally appear, particularly along the Missouri River and other transportation arteries, however they seem to have only a moderate impact on the local tool-making traditions. At the root of the western large corner-notched point system, as it is now called, was the Pelican Lake point (Fig. 21), a well-made, medium-sized, triangular bladed, corner-notched dart point with very sharp edges and barbed shoulders.
Over time Pelican Lake points grew thicker, wider, and more rounded in outline and by about A.D. 200 had been supplanted by the Besant point (Fig. 29) a medium- to large-sized, convex-sided dart point with broad notches placed near the base. Besant points were themselves superseded after about 200 years by Samantha points, long, triangular-bladed projectiles with small shallow notches placed near the base and weak sloping shoulders (Fig. 28). All of these point types are common in surface collections throughout Minnesota. However, they are most highly represented in the western half of the state where the environs were like those of the plains and where the Indians had greater access to plains resources and ideas. Two sites excavated in Minnesota that have strong affinities to the western plains are Lake Bronson in Kittson County and Alton Anderson in Watonwan County.
At around A.D. 500 the Large-corner notched system had pretty much run its course and was being replaced by a new system of small side-notched projectiles that appeared on the western plains at the beginning of the third century A.D. and developed side-by-side with the large corner notched forms. These small side-notched points mark the advent of bow-and-arrow technology, and with it, the final stage of the Woodland period. The Avonlea point (Fig. 31), recognized by most archaeologists as the first true “arrowhead,” is small to medium-sized, triangular in outline with small side-notches and a straight or concave base edge. They are made from small, thin flakes and usually exhibit a high level craftsmanship with finely executed pressure flaking over both surfaces. Late Woodland side-notched points identified as Avonlea or strongly resembling them are fairly common in Minnesota and have been recovered at the Alton Anderson site in Watonwan County, Petaga Point and the Old Shakopee Bridge sites in Mille Lacs County, and in the Snake River valley. Other varieties of Late Woodland notched arrow points found in Minnesota include Koster, St. Croix, and Klunk (Figs. 32,33, and 37).
Mississippian/Oneota Period (Figures 34-36) By around A.D. 900 the Mississippian culture, a tradition with strong ties to the southern Mississippi Valley and central Mexico, began to exert its influences upon local Woodland groups throughout the Midwest from its center at Cahokia in southern Illinois. The Mississippian tradition developed around an agriculture-intensive economy that relied on maize (corn), beans, squash, sunflowers, and tobacco as its principal crops. And since the best conditions for growing them were to be found along the broad, flat terraces of major drainages, large organized villages, often equipped with defensive palisade walls, sprang up as more and more of the rich bottom lands, sometimes hundreds of acres at a time, were cleared for cultivation. These vast fields produced a considerable food surplus, which was stored in deep, underground pits.Many Woodland groups living in marginal areas were unable to or refused to adopt the Mississippian culture in its entirety, possibly because of environmental constraints or an allegiance to old ways. Nevertheless, trading networks enabled an active commodities exchange that allowed them to enjoy at least some of the amenities of a Mississippian lifestyle while at the same time maintaining their own local traditions. The two major provincial cultures that developed simultaneously with the Mississippian florescence were the Plains Village along the Missouri River and the Oneota in the Upper Mississippi Valley. These groups offered commodities from the west like bison scapula for garden hoes, dried bison meat and skins for robes, and catlinite pipes in exchange for corn, squash, tobacco, finely made stone tools from high quality stone, pots, and other goods. Both the Plains Village and Oneota cultures show strong affinities to local Woodland predecessors and intrusive Mississippian traditions.
Hunting of bison, elk, deer, and small game remained vital to local economies as did fishing and clamming. Animal resource exploitation reached a peak as people became more and more reliant upon it for sources of nutrition and raw materials for artifact production. Bone tools become more diverse and abundant; the scapula hoe, made from the shoulder blade of bison or elk and used in gardening, is one of the hallmarks of the Mississippian tool complex. Awls, shaft wrenches, knives, hide fleshers, gaming pieces, fishhooks, and personal ornaments are commonly encountered on Mississippian-period sites. Clams taken from the nearby rivers provided an additional source of meat nutrition and the shells were used in a variety of activities such as pottery production and food processing.
Perhaps the most distinctive of the Mississippian tradition artifact classes are the ceramics, which are characterized by distinctive physical, technological and decorative attributes that set them apart from other ceramic traditions. Mississippian and Oneota pottery is typically tempered with crushed shell, they are large and globular in shape with thin, hard-fired walls. The rims tend to flare outward and often have two or four handles for attaching suspension cords. Decoration occurs over the shoulder, lip, and inside of the rim and consists of trailed or incised lines that form curvilinear or geometric patterns over a smoothed surface. Pottery associated with Plains Village sites are more likely to be grit tempered with decoration consisting of incised parallel lines and tool impressions placed in patterned zones over the shoulder, outer rim, and lip.
The chipped stone tool assemblages of the Mississippian period are similar to those of the Woodland. They include scrapers, knives, drills, and arrowpoints, which are generally small, thin, very sharp, and triangular in shape. Flaking is very good and sometimes exhibits well executed parallel pressure flaking over both surfaces. Notching, sometimes multiple notches, may occur along the lateral and basal edges. The notched variety, classified as Cahokia points (Fig. 34) are generally found on, or in close proximity to classic Mississippian sites. The plain triangular points, called Madison Triangles (Fig. 35), and Fresno points (Fig. 36) are much more widespread in their distribution and are commonly found throughout Minnesota where they exist side by side with Late Woodland side-notched projectile points. Mississippian activity in Minnesota is focused in the southeastern and south-central parts of the state. Sites demonstrating strong Mississippian affiliations include Bryan, Silvernale, and Bartron in Goodhue County, and Cambria, Vosburg, Judson and Lewis along the Minnesota River in Blue Earth County. More provincial Oneota manifestations have been found at the Sheffield site in Washington County, and as far west as Big Stone Lake in Big Stone County.
Around A.D. 1350, for reasons not entirely understood, the Mississippian culture began to experience a noticeable decline. Populations at the major urban centers such as Cahokia thinned as their cultural and economic affluence waned. By A.D. 1450 the dissolution of Mississippian power and influence was complete. Some archaeologists attribute this phenomenon, in part, to increasingly arid conditions which began around A.D. 1200. Others suggest that widespread topsoil erosion, resulting from extensive deforestation of the river bottoms and adjacent uplands, was a major contributing factor. Vestiges of the Mississippian tradition continued to manifest themselves in the Oneota complexes of the Upper Mississippi River which are best described as a regression of the Mississippian pattern. Agriculture continued to be practiced, but on a much reduced scale as local Oneota groups reverted to more traditional hunting and gathering subsistence patterns.
Stone tools continued to be made and used by Native American groups in Minnesota right up to the nineteenth century. However at the time of European contact in the late seventeenth century the chipped stone side-notched and unnotched triangular points of late prehistoric times were supplemented by small metal points cut from sheets of trade metal and copper kettles. Metal arrow points like the one depicted in Figure 38 have been found at the Savanna Portage and Northwest Fur Trade post in Aitken County. These new metal points were lighter, more durable, easy to make, and could be sharpened down to a finer edge that would last longer. However they also lack the uniqueness of their chipped stone predecessors.
Definitions:
Assimilate - to accept a foreign cultural element and blend it into the local cultural tradition. Chert - a “flinty” sedimentary stone often used to make stone tools. Complex-broad chronological sub-divisions within specific artifact industries (i.e. chipped stone, pottery, architecture) that are based on changes in artifact manufacture, form or function that occur over time. Component - discrete occupational episodes at the same site by different cultural groups. Coniferous - cone-bearing trees such as pine, fir and spruce Flake core - a nodule of chert or flint from which flakes are struck. Flintknapping - the art of making stone tools. Grave furniture -items included in a grave such as a pot, bone awl, or stone point or knife to accompany the deceased in the after life. Projectile point- a generalized term that archaeologist use when referring to the tips of darts, spears and arrows. Projectile points can be made of stone, bone, antler, even glass and metal. Haft- to permanently fix a projectile point to its shaft using sinew, leather or a twisted vegetable cord which was then covered in “pitch” or pine tar to keep it tightly in place. Heterogeneous - have different origins and exhibit different characteristics. Homogeneous - have the same origin and exhibit similar characteristics. In situ - the place that an artifact was dropped after its last use. Nomadic - small mobile groups whose movements are determined by herd migrations. Sinew- an animal tendon, usually from a deer, that has been dressed for use as a cord or thread. Trajectory - the path of a projectile in flight. Tradition - an established way of doing something that is passed down from generation to generation.Note: The figures are idealized forms and have not been drawn to scale. Tick marks along the haft elements indicate the extent of edge grinding.
Dan Higginbottom is a Ph.D. candidate in the Interdisciplinary Archaeological Studies Program at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis ©Daniel K. Higginbottom 1996 Lithic images copyright ©1997 Dan Higginbottom
