Post an Arrowhead and tell its use (open posting)

Tnmountains

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Name an arrowhead or tool. Give a time frame. Post a picture and tell us what you can of its many uses. Provide your research links...... Here is an interesting one to start......

Morrow Mountain,Middle Archaic, Hunting and warfare.
a005.jpg
Source Book, Prehistoric Indians of the South East. Archeology of Alabama and the Middle South.pg 64 online .
Burials

The burial positions of these individulalls was not the only unusuall thing about them_ all three had met violent deaths. The rib cage of burial 83 an adult male,had been penetrated by three projectile points. One of these was a morrow mountain while the other two had been fragmented upon impact and could not be identified. Burial 84,also an adult male was associated with 7 Morrow Mountain projectiles points. 4 Morrow Mountains were found in the thoracic cavity, 2 Morrow Mountains were firmly imbedded in the spinal column and one Morrow Mountain was found in the mouth cavity. One of the two points found in the spinal column"had entered from the front and loged in the centrum(center part of the vertebra, the other had penetrated from the rear and was embedded between two neural processes.
Burial number 85, a male adolecent had been placed into the burial pit first then a cache of artifacts was placed between the arm and body.Two bone awls from deer ulnas,one biface knife,and two Morrow Mountain projectile points. This individuall also had a projectile point firmly embedded in his spinal column.

Here is the book on line if you want to buy it. Talks a lot about pre-clovis artifacts,, You can read some on line at
http://books.google.com/books?id=kM...esult&ct=result&resnum=4#v=onepage&q=&f=false
 

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OK. Pine Tree Points from various parts of Pennsylvania. Early Archaic era. (Sorry for the poor lighting).

L-R : Dauphin Co. ; Penn's Creek Chert
?/?
Westmoreland Co. ; Loyalhanna Chert
Colombia Co ; Penn's Creek Chert
Montgomery Co. ; patinated Normanskil Chert (N.Y.)

These pretty much follow Thebes, Dovetails &c. and pre-date Bifurcates. Individual characteristics are pretty fluid, sharing similarities with other, contemporary point styles (like basal grinding and burin flaking).
 

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Uniface
What were they used for or what do you think their primary purpose was? I see that base and think hafted. What do you think?
 

In light of the serrations many of them have (or evidence that they had them), I suspect that the majority of them were hafted knives, like (at least most of the) Kirks & Bifurcates. Every once in a while you see one with an impact fracture, but not that often.

How do you have stuff like them figured ?
 

My opinion is a humble one. I see that base and you just know it was built to be tied on to something.The serrations yell knife and weapon and a wicked tool it would be but...... I bet at times it was used on a atl-atl for a young strong hunter. Imagine they could bury a fresh point like that with a needle tip pretty deep.They used the atlatl with Daltons and kept using the atlatl till the bow so they had to be using something as a tip right? What else is there that could be hafted during that time frame/? Maybe is was also like a side arm today. Protection. You have convinced me that when you skinned an animal it was a quick made uniface/biface razor. Not something you would haft or carry around.
Just my opinion. Maybe somebody else has a take on it? Great looking collection sir.
 

I think there wasn't much difference between knives and darts with the foreshaft in use.
 

Hey TN,

I've been reluctant to respond, am no expert, so ID'ing is only a quazi-guess, but then that may be the case for many. Even a good visual match could be wrong, depending on where and the context in which it was located.
Here is my best guess on the following.
I'ld say a Williams dart point, that, after a major impact fracture, was reworked into a knife. Middle to late Archaic.

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If I'm wrong, so be it, it would not be the first time and certainly won't be the last.
Nice thread.

BW
 

Bravo
I am far from an expert and only here to learn.These guys have taught me more in a year than all my years of collecting. So impact fracture into knife that makes sense to me and seems they would salvage anything workable. Its a great looking knife now. Show some more Bravo.You have some really cool stuff :thumbsup:
 

larson1951 said:
here are 5 bone points
I suppose they are for general purpose
the center one may have been special or had some ones name on it because it has staff of feathers marked on both sides
I don't know if this is for sure, but maybe someone can give some opinions about them
I have 2 more: one has 4 tails on it and one has 2 or 4 tails on it(it is a broke(split)piece)
I will try to find them and post them as soon as I can
I think this is a good topic for positve remarks and discussion
I did not know so many types of points existed until I discovered this great website
these were possibly designed for wound killing. maybe they popped of in the kill and remained there to help bleed out the wound. much like the fluted clovis was designed to break off in the victim when thown. the idea was that even though the spear fell out, the tip would remain, cutting the wound worse causing bleeding and death
 

I agree on the wounding. These guys knew if they could get a piece of whatever they were hunting they would in time recover it. I think the guy that dropped something in its tracks was treated to a heros welcome back at camp. Short hunt and success was living the life. Thanks for the thoughtful reply.
TnMtns
 

TnMountains said:
I agree on the wounding. These guys knew if they could get a piece of whatever they were hunting they would in time recover it. I think the guy that dropped something in its tracks was treated to a heros welcome back at camp. Short hunt and success was living the life. Thanks for the thoughtful reply.
TnMtns
also i meant in paleo times. hunting mammoth would be a more difficult kill then a deer, rabbit, squiral, or bat. more modern man became smarter and i agree would prefer a more direct final slaying
 

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