El Inga Projectile Points — Surface Collections

1966 ◽  
Vol 31 (5Part1) ◽  
pp. 644-661 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J Mayer-Oakes
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
South American ◽  
Projectile Point ◽  
Large Sample ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Line Drawings ◽  
A Site ◽  
Fluted Points ◽  
Material Form

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.

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.

A Barbed Bone Projectile Point from Utah

1940 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-171
Author(s):  
John Gillin
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Present Writer ◽  
Present Specimen ◽  
Similar Nature ◽  
Projectile Point ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
University Of Utah ◽  
Peabody Museum ◽  
A Site

In view of the fact that barbed bone “projectile” points are extremely rare in the Southwestern archaeological area and because such artifacts have a generally northern and arctic distribution in North America, the present specimen from Utah is offered in the hope that other material of a similar nature from the Southwest may be published and that, perhaps, someone may be attracted to the elucidation of the problems implied. The present writer is unaware of other published specimens of bone projectile points from this area, although, of course, bone artifacts of several other types are fairly numerous.The present specimen was recovered in the summer of 1937 by the Peabody Museum-University of Utah joint expedition, of which the writer was field director. The point was found at a site, near Ephraim, Utah, locally known as Witch's Knoll.

Ecoterritorial Turns

Hydropolitics ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 185-200
Author(s):  
Christine Folch
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
State Power ◽  
South American ◽  
Energy Integration ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Joint Declaration ◽  
Quality Of Movement ◽  
A Site

This chapter explores how water creates community. It explains how citizenship is constructed in relation to transboundary water, which is distinct from patterns of governance based on fixed territorial boundaries in relation to connections between legal priorities, climate change, and the durability of capitalism. In liberal democracies, communal hopes and fears get fought over in law. However, this chapter takes law as a site of values enforcement through the signed Joint Declaration and a proposed region-wide South American Energy Integration Treaty, which rescripted sovereignty and state power under new hydraulic pressures. The chapter also describes how rights get attached to water-as-energy and how rights are generated by water-as-energy. Because of the quality of movement, water's ecoterritorial attributes exceed the boundaries of the national state, implying a larger region as the basis of an ecocitizenship. It discusses how ethics are expressed through renewable energy as law is produced and circulated through Itaipú.

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.

The Burin-Faceted Projectile Point

1963 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremiah F. Epstein
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Projectile Point ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Point Types ◽  
Indian Point

AbstractA series of Paleo-Indian and Archaic projectile points with burin facets at either the proximal or distal end is described. Most of the points come from Texas. The burin facets appear to be intentional products of the burin technique, used either for the production of burins and burin spalls, or for modifying the shape of the point itself. Paleo-Indian point types with burin facets include Clovis, Cumberland, Folsom, Plainview, Meserve, Angostura, and a number of variant forms. The data suggest that the burin or the burin technique may have been widespread throughout North America during early fluted-point times.

On a Pleistocene human occupation at Pedra Furada, Brazil

Antiquity ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 68 (261) ◽  
pp. 695-714 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Meltzer ◽  
James M. Adovasio ◽  
Tom D. Dillehay
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Special Interest ◽  
Northeastern Brazil ◽  
South American ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Peopling Of The Americas ◽  
Monte Verde ◽  
A Site

The last decades of fieldwork have not decisively upset the long-held view that the settlement of the Americas occurred in the very latest Pleistocene, as marked in North America by the Clovis archaeological horizon at about 11,200 years ago, and by a variety of contemporaneous South American industries. Yet there are several sites that may prove to be older, among them Pedra Furada, in the thorn forest of northeastern Brazil, a large and remarkable rock-shelter, whose Pleistocene deposits have been interpreted as containing clear evidence of human occupation.This paper offers a considered view of Pedra Furada from three archaeologists with a wide range of experiences in sites of all ages in the Americas and elsewhere, but who also share a special interest and expertise in the issues Pedra Furada has raised: Meltzer from long study of the peopling of the Americas and the frame of thinking within which we address that issue (Meltzer 1993a; 1993b); Adovasio from his intensive excavations and analysis of the Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania, the prime North American pre-Clovis candidate (Adovasio et al. 1990; Donahue & Adovasio 1990); and Dillehay from his work at the Monte Verde site in Chile, a site in which extraordinary preservation has produced a rich archaeological record with radiocarbon ages in excess of 12,500 years b.p. (Dillehay 1989a; in press). At the invitation of the Pedra Furada team, the three travelled to Brazil last December to participate in an international conference on the peopling of the Americas, and see first-hand the evidence from Pedra Furada.

scholarly journals Why Did Projectile-Point Size Increase in the Andean Altiplano Archaic? An Experimental Atlatl Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Caleb K. Chen ◽  
Luis Flores-Blanco ◽  
Randall Haas
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Penetration Depth ◽  
Size Reduction ◽  
Projectile Point ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Andean Altiplano ◽  
Andean Highlands ◽  
Economical Alternative ◽  
Over Time

Archaic projectile points from the Andean Altiplano exhibit a curious trend of increasing size over time, in contrast to a well-documented size reduction throughout North America. Although a number of hypotheses exist to account for decreasing projectile-point size, there are currently no explicit explanations for increasing size. We consider several hypotheses and interrogate two techno-economic hypotheses. We posit that increasing point size compensated for lost dart momentum or accuracy that resulted from the shortening of atlatls or atlatl darts as wood became increasingly scarce on the tree-sparse Altiplano. We evaluate these hypotheses using a replicated Andean atlatl system in ballistic trials. Contrary to expectation, results show that point enlargement significantly reduces penetration depth, allowing us to confidently reject the momentum hypothesis. Point enlargement, in contrast, tentatively correlates positively with accuracy. Our experiment further shows that camelid bone is an effective and economical alternative to wood for atlatl production. Despite suboptimal lengths, camelid radioulna atlatls have a convenient morphology that requires low production time, which helps explain empirically observed camelid bone atlatls from the Andean highlands. More generally, our observations lead us to consider that central tendencies in archaeologically observed projectile-point size may reflect a trade-off between penetration and accuracy.

scholarly journals Assessing Prehistoric Chronology in Piedmont Contexts

1996 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-59
Author(s):  
Michael D. Petraglia ◽  
Dennis A. Knepper
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Projectile Point ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Site Occupation ◽  
Point Types ◽  
The Relationship

The chronology of six prehistoric archaeological sites in piedmont contexts of northern Virginia are evaluated. Timing of site occupation and regional chronology is assessed on the basis of commonly accepted projectile point styles and radiocarbon dates. The relationship between projectile points and absolute dates is examined. Three projectile point types, the Lobate, the Piscataway, and the Woodland Site-Notched, are evaluated with regard to their possible temporal contexts. Methodological issues and problems relating to the presence and quality of chronological data are explored.

A Review of Lynch's Descriptions of South American Pleistocene Sites

1991 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 342-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Gruhn ◽  
Alan L. Bryan
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
South American ◽  
Bearing Surface ◽  
Projectile Point ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Stratigraphic Unit ◽  
Eyewitness Reports

The description of major South American Pleistocene sites by Lynch (1990) contains significant errors and omissions. The artifact assemblage at the Colombian site of Tibitó, dated at 11,740 ± 140 B.P., is much larger than indicated by Lynch and well represents the Abriense industry, which features small unifacially retouched flake tools and core tools, with no stone projectile points. Lynch did not describe the 1976 stratigraphic profile at the Venezuelan site of Taima-Taima, and he failed to refer to the evidence for butchering of the juvenile mastodon with which an El Jobo projectile point fragment and a utilized flake were associated directly. The descriptions of Brazilian sites also feature serious mistakes. For the site of Alice Boër, Lynch overlooked a thick sterile stratigraphic unit (Bed IV) that intervenes between Bed III, with its thermoluminescence dates as early as 10,970 ± 1020 B.P. and radiocarbon dates as early as 14,200 ± 1150 B.P., and the artifact-bearing surface of Bed V. For Lapa Vermelha, Lynch failed to indicate that several artifacts were recovered from an older cemented cave fill that yielded radiocarbon dates of 22,410 B.P. and > 25,000 B.P. Lynch’s description of the site of Toca do Boqueirào da Pedra Furada does not correspond to eyewitness reports, and his description of the nearby Toca do Sitio do Meio was incomplete and confused. Finally, in his description of the stratigraphy of the Patagonian site of Los Toldos, Cueva 3 Lynch misquoted and misconstrued the original reports, which indicate clearly the stratigraphic priority and integrity of the Level 11 industry. For accurate descriptions of early South American archaeological sites, readers are urged to examine the original sources.

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