Arrowheads of the Central Plains, by Daniel
J. Fox, 207 pages; hundreds of photos, all of which are in color.
Published in an 8 1/2 by 11 inch format.
This interesting new title by Daniel J. Fox covers a wealth of new information
benefiting avocational collectors as well as the professional community.
My first contact with Mr. Fox was the result of his finding a large Allen
point, and during the same year, he a very colorful large Clovis points
made from yellow and green Niobrara jasper. Both were found along major
waterways in the state of Kansas. You can't imagine how tempting it was
for me to think about driving due west the very next spring in search of
Paleo points somewhere in the central Great Plains, which encompasses southern
Nebraska, eastern Colorado, Kansas, northern Oklahoma, western Missouri,
and Iowa.
Daniel Fox covers an infinite variety of topics beginning with "Anatomy
of a Point, a time period chart and relative point styles." Of extreme
importance are his detailed accounts regarding "How to properly catalog
your finds." This author has made a serious avocation of hunting gravel
and sand bars along major waterways in the central Great Plains, and met
with great success in a few short years while he was working on his Masters
degree. Dan found over 3000 points in this short period. Daniel J. Fox proves
the value of the camera in the field with close-up views of many important
finds in situ.
Perhaps the most indelible impressions from this work came from several statements
made in his "Observations" and "How to Tell if a Stone Tool
is Not Modern and Truly Prehistoric" sections. He goes by the principle
that "all contact leaves a trace" and the suggestion from one
of his mentors to "take a closer look." In these observations,
he makes a solid point that modern stone tools are made and aimed at achieving
a classic outline of a valuable point type (specifically those made for
the reproduction market) and such modern items could never have been resharpened
after use. This is contrary to the reasoning of ancient man, who depended
upon the ability and necessity to resharpen his tools as needed in the
field.
Fox's "Gallery of Selected Points" includes 41 different point
types found in the central Great Plains and features documented finds of
a variety of lithic materials with excellent color photographs and a full
description of each type. The color photos of lithics offer the reader help
in recognizing lithic materials found in this region.
Arrowheads of the Central Great Plains is a new publication from Collector
Books.
This book is available through Collector Books and, shortly, through your
local artifact book sellers. This book is important and should be part of
your reference library.
