Projectile technology

Abstract Although there are many archaeological and ethnographic evidences for the use of slate and similar rocks for flaking purpose, they raised little interest among specialists, leading to a general ignorance of specific problems associated with these raw materials. ...

The last investigations made during the excavation of the different levels at this important site to study the solutrean in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, have permited us to make some precisions on its chronostratigraphic position in the upper pleistocene. The calibration of a new radiocarbon date for the level IV (Upper Solutrean) and other six new dates (5 of them AMS) for the level II (Final Upper Solutrean) allows us to place this two cultural phases between the Greenland Stadial GS3 (end of OIS 3) and the end of the Greenland Intersatial GI 2, with a greater occupation of level II after the Heinrich Event H2, agreeing with the intersadial that come just before the last glacial maximum (GS 2). This new data modify clearly the before existing dates, making the whole record very much older. On the other side, the discovery of decorated panels with engravings and paintings, recoverd by Upper Solutrean sediments, allow us to place this representations, with great precision, in the Medium Solutrean (level VI) that must be placed between the GI 5 and the G 3. The excavation of the area that we call the microstratigraphy, included in level II (Final Upper Solutrean or Evolved Upper Solutrean), has provided 21 double layers of hearts, one of them with a stone structure and thousands of very typical solutrean flint implements that includes the characteristic barbed and tanged points, shouldered points and leaf points. The investigations carried out in the Laboratorio de Estudios Paleolíticos with this arrowheads, shows that they must be thrown with a bow.

As in the rest of the Southeast, researchers of South Carolina prehistory use projectile point typologies to organize sequences of culture history and frame questions about change through time. For the Early Archaic a general temporal distinction between earlier side notched points (such as Taylor, Big Sandy, and Hardaway side notched) and later corner notched points (generally referred to as Kirk) has been accepted for the last five decades (Coe 1964; Michie 1966; Charles and Moore 2018:21-30). The shift from side notching to corner notching in the Southeast was part of a wider pattern of technological change that extended across much of the Eastern Woodlands (see Tuck 1974). The recognition that side notched and corner notched points tend to differ in age across the Eastern Woodlands is based on several lines of evidence: (1) the radiocarbon record; (2) stratigraphic relationships between the two point forms; and (3) the existence of “closed” assemblages that contain either side notched or corner notched points rather than a mixture of the two forms.

In this paper we present the results of a use-wear study of quartz micro-notches identified during a technological analysis of lithics from the Howiesons Poort layers of Sibudu Cave. Building on the technological analysis and preliminary functional screening of the archaeological material, a series of experiments was designed to evaluate different hypotheses for notch formation (blank production, intentional notching, hafting, projectile use, and trampling). The experimental reference collection was compared with archaeological micro-notches and a large sample of other archaeological quartz pieces (including bladelets, bipolar blanks, flakes and retouched pieces). This allowed us to evaluate the causes of micro-notch formation in the studied assemblage. Results indicate two novelties in the Howiesons Poort hunting technology at Sibudu: the use of quartz barbs and non-retouched quartz blanks. It seems that in addition to backed pieces (segments, obliquely backed points, etc.), unretouched pieces were mounted as elements in hunting weapons during the Howiesons Poort techno-tradition. Seven probable and 29 tentative barbs were identified. We thus present one of the strongest and oldest bodies of evidence for the use of barbs as projectile elements.

A wide variety of lanceolate and stemmed projectile point/knife forms occur in cultural complexes geographically distributed from the northern Great Plains through the northern tier of the Desert West, including inland and intermontane areas of the Pacific Northwest. The chronological placements, cultural affiliations, and potential cultural relationships between these complexes remain vexing problems for in-depth analyses of the Clovis/Paleoindian-Late Paleoindian-Archaic transition across this region.

This study will examine the following:
1) How the Sentinel Gap point sample compares to other regionally defined Late Paleoindian (c. ≤ 10,800 [rcy] B.P.) point complexes.
2) The importance of re-examining the vectors of style, technology, and function when interpreting similarities and differences in these point complexes.
3) If the Sentinel Gap point sample provides new insights regarding a possible region-wide progression of Late Paleoindian-Archaic point complexes; reflecting morpho-technological alterations of forms linked to functional changes and ultimately, a continuing areal isolation of certain populations (Beck and Jones 2009:170-196).
4) And finally, to determine whether or not Beck and Jones’ (2009:168ff) ideas pertaining to possible cultural relationships and the directional movement of point complexes across the region are supported by Sentinel Gap data.

This work presents the results of the mineralogical, petrographic, and geochemical study carried out on representative samples from the large assemblage of the Neolithic stone artifacts found in Drakaina Cave, at Kephalonia island, western Greece. The aim of this study is the determination of the raw materials used for the manufacture of lithic/stone implements, as well as their possible sources. Of the artifacts under study, the chipped stone tools were manufactured on cherts from local sources, while the ground stone edged tools on gabbro and the discoid stone beads on talc, both imported in the Ionian Islands. Geochemical analyses indicate that the most probable source for the gabbro artifacts is the Pindos Mountains. Limestones and sandstones, used by the Neolithic stone workers for the production of various ground stone tools, such as grinding slabs, grinders, abraders, polishers and hammer stones, were acquired exclusively from local sources, as they are the predominant rock types of the island. The raw material for the manufacture of a zoomorphic vessel of white marble was most probably originated from Naxos, an island of the Cyclades complex in the south Aegean Sea.

The origins of complex projectile weaponry provides insight into cultural and biological changes associated with the origins and spread of modern human populations. Middle Stone Age backed pieces are often thought to be components of such armaments, however our limited understanding of their functional characteristics as projectiles precludes understanding the adaptive problems they may have solved. Despite acknowledgment of raw material differences and intra-assemblage variability, whether variability in backed piece form reflects functional , economic, or stylistic variation has a paucity of empirical support. Here, the functional differences in backed piece form (size and shape) while hafted transversely and obliquely as high-velocity complex projectile armatures are examined. If there are performance tradeoffs simply in how backed pieces are arranged at the end of armaments that can influence effectiveness, then identifying the archaeological arrangement can provide insight into what variables were being prioritized in prehistoric technological systems. How variation in backed piece size, elongation, and hafting arrangement influences complex projectile performance is tested using experimental and actualistic projectile replications with a calibrated crossbow against animal and ballistics gelatin targets. The results of this study show that, within the size and shape variation of silcrete backed pieces examined , tool form plays a relatively limited role in their performance as projectile armatures. However, hafting orientation has very different performance characteristics for complex projectiles shot at ballistics gelatin compared to animal targets. We demonstrate that transversely hafted tools have more lethal internal wounds, but obliquely hafted backed pieces have greater puncture reliability. These functional differences represent different technological design emphasis: transversely hafted tools create large, deep wounds, while obliquely hafted arrows and darts create a puncture more reliably. Although obliquely hafted armaments cause less internal trauma, they are more likely to penetrate the hide of ungulate prey. Variability in MSA hunting tactics may have played a role in the design of weapon systems to optimize these performance tradeoffs. Despite similarities in shape with ethno-historic technologies, based on these results, MSA-sized backed pieces hafted as projectile armatures were unlikely to have been used with small, low-powered bows-but would have been lethal with a high-velocity delivery system.

Projectile technology is commonly viewed as a significant contributor to past human subsistence and, consequently, to our evolution. Due to the allegedly central role of projectile weapons in the food-getting strategies of Upper Palaeolithic people, typo-technological changes in the European lithic record have often been linked to supposed developments in hunting weaponry. Yet, relatively little reliable functional data is currently available that would aid the detailed reconstruction of past weapon designs. In this paper, we take a usewear approach to the backed tool assemblages from the Recent and Final Gravettian layers (Levels 3 and 2) of Abri Pataud (Dordogne, France). Our use of strict projectile identification criteria relying on combinations of low and high magnification features and our critical view of the overlap between production and use-related fractures permitted us to confidently identify a large number of used armatures in both collections. By isolating lithic projectiles with the strongest evidence of impact and by recording wear attributes on them in detail, we could establish that the hunting equipment used during the Level 3 occupations involved both lithic weapon tips and composite points armed with lithic inserts. By contrast, the Level 2 assemblage reflects a heavy reliance on composite points in hunting reindeer and other game. Instead of an entirely new weapon design, the Level 2 collection therefore marks a shift in weapon preferences. Using recent faunal data, we discuss the significance of the observed diachronic change from the point of view of prey choice, seasonality, and social organisation of hunting activities. Our analysis shows that to understand their behavioural significance, typo-technological changes in the lithic record must be viewed in the light of functional data and detailed contextual information.

The projectile points known as Fishtail or Fell represent a specific design associated with the earliest
hunter-gatherers of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in South America. Brazil was traditionally
considered as a marginal area of their distribution because in the past there were only a
small number of findings known, often inadequately documented. In this paper we present a general
and unified overview of the Brazilian record, including previously unpublished metric, technological
and stylistic features. Also, we report on new findings of fishtail points in order to expand
the amount of information currently available. Some issues related to these records are also
evaluated by comparing them with data from the Uruguayan plains and the Argentinean pampas.
The general picture that emerges after this analysis shows a growing record of fishtail projectile
points in southern Brazil, demonstrating a significant presence of these early paleo-South American
populations.

Most of our current knowledge of late Pleistocene African bone technology is drawn from southern African sites, with recent discoveries indicating that bone- and stone-tipped arrows (propelled by a bow) were in use prior to 60,000 years BP. Integration of archaeological with ethnographic data similarly suggests that hunting with poison-tipped arrows on the African continent has an antiquity of at least 24,000 years. Unfortunately, similar analysis of material from eastern Africa is largely absent and consequently, with the sole exception of barbed points, we know very little regarding osseous technology in this region and how similar or dissimilar it is to contexts located further south. This paper presents a small assemblage of seven bone artefacts recovered from the late Pleistocene deposits of Kuumbi Cave, Zanzibar. Comparison of the bone projectile points, a bone awl and a notched bone tube with ethnographic and archaeological material from throughout the Sub-Saharan region suggests that, as elsewhere in Africa, bone technology was a central element in the Later Stone Age material culture repertoire of Kuumbi Cave’s inhabitants. It also suggests that arrow points coated with poison were in use in eastern Africa around 13,000 years BP.