Palaeoindian artefact distributions: evidence and implications

Antiquity ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (285) ◽  
pp. 507-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Anderson ◽  
Michael K. Faught
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Younger Dryas ◽  
Settlement Pattern ◽  
Sudden Onset ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Fluted Points

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.

Geographic Variation in Fluted Projectile Points: A Hemispheric Perspective

1999 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliet E. Morrow ◽  
Toby A. Morrow
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
South America ◽  
Geographic Variation ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
North American ◽  
South American ◽  
Western North America ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Fluted Points

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.

scholarly journals Origins and spread of fluted-point technology in the Canadian Ice-Free Corridor and eastern Beringia

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (16) ◽  
pp. 4116-4121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather L. Smith ◽  
Ted Goebel
Keyword(s):  
Great Plains ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Evolutionary Patterns ◽  
Geometric Morphometric ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Proximate Source ◽  
Fluted Points

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.

Epistemological Importance and Fluted Points: An Observation

1989 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-66
Author(s):  
Shawn D. Haley
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
North American ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Native North American ◽  
Fluted Points ◽  
Over Time

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.

Blood Residues on Fluted Points from Eastern Beringia

1998 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas H. Loy ◽  
E. James Dixon
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Mammal Species ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Human Predation ◽  
Pleistocene Mammals ◽  
Game Hunting ◽  
Biological Methods ◽  
Fluted Points ◽  
First Time ◽  
Big Game Hunting

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.

Regional variation in the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene radiocarbon record of eastern North America

2013 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Shane Miller ◽  
Joseph A.M. Gingerich
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Regional Variation ◽  
Probability Distributions ◽  
Younger Dryas ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Northeastern United States ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Terminal Pleistocene ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Data Result

AbstractIn this paper we use radiocarbon dates to evaluate the signature of the Younger Dryas Chronozone (YDC) in eastern North America. Using an approach that examines radiocarbon dates by region, we argue that the northeastern United States shows a better overall representation of radiocarbon dates when compared to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. These data result in a peak in summed probability distributions during the YDC, which is often interpreted as evidence of population growth. Further examination of these distributions, however, illustrates that differential standard deviations, varying sample size, and the effect of taphonomic and research biases likely overwhelm any demographic signatures in our study sample. Consequently, the frequency of radiocarbon dates by itself is insufficient for understanding the relationship between climate, culture and demography in eastern North America.

Evidence for Aboriginal Tobaccos in Eastern North America

1984 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas W. Haberman
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
South Dakota ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
Temporal Perspective ◽  
Eastern Woodlands ◽  
Tobacco Seeds ◽  
Herbarium Collections ◽  
Aboriginal Groups

SEM micrographs of seeds from four tobaccos historically cultivated by aboriginal groups in the Eastern Woodlands and adjacent Great Plains of North America are presented. The tobaccos considered are Nicotiana rustica L., N. attenuata Torr., N. bigelovii var. quadrivalvis (Pursh) East, and N. bigelovii var. multivalvis (Lindley) East. Micrographs of seeds from herbarium collections are compared with micrographs of carbonized tobacco seeds from the Extended Middle Missouri component at the Travis I site, and tobacco is reported from the Dirt Lodge Village site, both in South Dakota. The archaeological specimens compare most favorably with N. bigelovii var. quadrivalvis (Pursh) East, the tobacco historically cultivated by the Arikara, Mandan, and Hidatsa. These results strengthen the evidence for trade contacts and cultural interaction by Middle Missouri tradition populations with groups to the west and provide new data on the temporal perspective for the cultivation of N. bigelovii var. quadrivalvis (Pursh) East in the Middle Missouri subarea.

Gradual or Step-Wise Change: The Development of Sedentary Settlement Patterns in Northeast Mississippi

1994 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Rafferty
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Settlement Pattern ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Middle Woodland ◽  
Selective Pressures ◽  
Pattern Change ◽  
Northeast Mississippi

Culture historians working on the Archaic and Woodland periods in eastern North America have adopted an essentialist view of settlement-subsistence relations, while processual archaeologists often have employed concepts emphasizing transformational relations to characterize settlement-pattern change. Selectionist theory uses detailed examination of variability in explaining change. Seven variables measured on a sequence of seriated Archaic and Woodland assemblages from sites in northeast Mississippi show sudden settlement-pattern change at the beginning of the Middle Woodland; this is interpreted as the advent of settled life in the study area. This case contradicts gradualist and essentialist settlement-subsistence scenarios. Such analyses hold promise for identifying the selective pressures at work when settlement patterns change.

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