The Paleoindian fluted point: dart or spear armature? : the identification of Paleoindian delivery technology through the analysis of lithic fracture velocity

One of the highest-profile, yet least known peoples in New World archaeology, are the Paleoindians. Despite the absence of supportive empirical data, archaeologists have long assumed that Paleoindians employed the spearthrower along with heavy, flutedpoint-tipped darts, to hunt now extinct species of late Pleistocene mammoth and bison. This assumption is critical to our understanding of Paleoindian life-ways since the identification of exploitative technology, such as weapons systems, is often the first crucial step towards the interpretation of higher order information that contributes to our knowledge of prehistoric peoples. Without an accurate assessment of the basic tools with which people interacted with their environment, we cannot fully explore more complex issues such as technological and social organization, or settlement and subsistence strategies. Traditional analyses of weapon technologies generally rely on classification schemes to identify projectile points as spear, dart, javelin, or arrow armatures. The logical fallacy of such schemes is the assumption that the investigator knows, apriori, that the artifact in question served as a projectile armature. By adopting and applying a methodology based on the fracture mechanics of brittle solids, this research avoids such interpretive leaps of faith. Employing data derived from velocity-dependant micro-fracture features, a series of controlled experiments were conducted to explore the range of lithic fracture velocities associated with various manufacturing (reduction) techniques, projectile impacts, and accidental breakage. Manufacturing and weapon delivery technologies are differentiated based on the fracture velocity exhibited by damaged artifacts; high-speed projectile impacts are reliably distinguished from other sources of lithic fracture, thus providing a quantitative means for identifying projectile armatures. Data derived from Paleoindian artifacts reveal fracture rates associated with high-velocity impacts, indicating the use of the spearthrower.