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This is an excerpt from "12,000
Years of Evolution of Projectile Points: Survival of the Fittest" .
Read the complete column in the Central
States Archaeological Societies 2023
July Journal which can be purchased on-line after March
2024
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Figure 1 Greg Perino poster of Early Man. |
In years past we would take the projectile points that our family
would find on our ancestors’ farm with its wigwam camp history
for evaluation by Gregory Perino - Archaeologist Consultant, at Idabel,
Oklahoma.
I was interested in his answers to questions with his historical
education and experience providing in-depth answers to my questions
regarding projectile points, but he caught me off guard when he asked
me why there are different types (forms) of points - different styles?
-- asking me this 20 years ago. I have been doing research to find
the answer to his question ever since.
My main source of information is Perino’s poster of Early
Man in the Central United States (Fig. 1), which utilizes his book
from 1968 Guide to the Identification of Certain American Indian
Projectile Points as the source of information. The poster pictures
the projectile points of the Paleo, Archaic, Woodland and Mississippian
periods, ending with Historic period points.
Using this poster as a chronological Table of Contents and filling
in the gaps with more inclusive information as described by James
L. Theler and Robert F. Boszhardt’s Twelve Millennia - Archaeology
of the Upper Mississippi River Valley and Perino’s Selected
Preforms, Points and Knives of the North American Indians and Robert
F. Boszhardt’s A Projectile Point Guide for the Upper Mississippi
River Valley my study was complete. Projectile points are stone tips
fastened to the ends of originally spears, then darts, then arrow
shafts. The earliest Paleo projectile point is a fluted lance spear
point such as Clovis and Folsom. With experience and time it was
found to be unnecessary to have the flute and the point evolved to
unfluted lanceolate points such Dalton, Plainview, Agate Basin and
Hell Gap to be the tip of the spear.
However, times changed and the valuable gemstone flint tip was
replaced with “projectile point styles that evolved out of
lanceolate forms into
Read the complete column in the Central States Archaeological Societies 2023
July Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2024 |
