Monday, February 15, 2016

The HekIfINoWatItIs Projectile Point Type



Figure One. Side A of a 2.8 inch long Hekifinowatitis prehistoric knife form found in 1905 
in Natrona County, Wyoming by George Cobban. John Bradford Branney Collection.  

I wonder what Paleoindians would think about us 'modern-day folk' expending so much time and effort discussing, describing, identifying, naming, and classifying their prehistoric tools, especially stone projectile points? Would they say, "Hey man, I was just making something to help get something to eat!" 

In my opinion, we have gone way overboard classifying every projectile point into a cubby hole filled with projectile point lookalikes. And when we can not place a particular projectile point into a cubby hole with other cubby holed projectile points, some cubby holer comes up with a new projectile point type. But, what if that prehistoric flintknapper who created that new oddball projectile point was just having a bad flint day? Or maybe he or she wanted to create something different on that day or week or year. Or maybe, just maybe, he or she was just not as skilled as their fellow flintknappers. I am sure prehistoric people were less interested in meeting some conformance criteria than using the projectile point to kill game they could eat.   

Figure Two. WINDS OF EDEN, the third book in the SHADOWS
ON THE TRAIL Quadrilogy. CLICK TO ORDER BOOK SERIES  
As an artifact hunter, I have to admit that I get caught up in the cubby holing as much as the next guy or gal. I am guilty of wanting every projectile point classified and cataloged. After finding and collecting thousands of projectile points, it is not easy to categorize every projectile point into an existing projectile point type. There are lots of what I call "tweeners" (between projectile point types) out there.   

I took the book passage in blue from my prehistoric adventure titled WINDS of EDEN. In this passage, an elder in the tribe is teaching young children the art of flintknapping on one of the most difficult projectile point types to knap, the Folsom point. We wonder why there is so much latitude and variation in a specific projectile point type, inexperienced knappers might be one reason why.            

The old man woke up from his nap when the sun was starting its descent in the sky. He reached over and picked up his satchel. He pulled out a large red and gray striped rock and sat staring at it. He rubbed the rock between his thumb and forefinger while thinking about everything that had happened to him since he had carried the rock from the canyon. Much had happened in his life since then, some of it good and some of it bad. When the old man finished reminiscing, he gently placed the red and gray striped rock back into the satchel. Then, with satchel in hand, the old man stood up and left his tipi. When he was outside the tipi, he had to shield his aged eyes from the bright sun. He slowly edged his way to a flat boulder next to his campfire where he sat down. Then, he pulled five unfinished spear points from the satchel. He laid the unfinished spear points down on the boulder next to him and then dug through the satchel, pulling out a cylinder–shaped punch made from an antler, a large antler hammer, small squares of bison hide, and a sharp deer antler tine. He placed these items next to the five unfinished spear points. He leaned over and picked up a flat rock at the base of the boulder. He set the flat rock down next to his other supplies. When the old man looked up, a young boy was running like the wind towards him.

Haw! – Hello!” the old man said to the young boy when he arrived at the campfire.

Haw!” the boy replied, somewhat out of breath. “I want to watch you.”

Waste! – Good!” the old man declared with a grin.

The young boy sat down as close to the old man as possible without actually sitting on the old man’s lap. The old man picked up the first spear point and handed it to the young boy.

He táku hwo? – What is it?” the old man asked.

The boy studied the piece of chert, his face frozen in a frown as he concentrated on the old man’s question. The young boy flipped the rock over in his hands, studying every surface. His eyes narrowed as he scrutinized the base of the spear point. Between the two sharp ears at the corners of the base of the spear point, the young boy spotted a tiny knob of chert, jutting out at the middle of the base.

What would we expect from young children making complicated projectile points? We sure would not expect perfection, and we would expect variation! A few of the points might resemble a Folsom point while others might not. If you or I found the children's efforts some twelve thousand years later, we might call them Folsom points or we might call them something entirely different.   

In my prehistoric artifact collection, I have many artifacts that I cannot classify into a specific projectile point types. So I made my own projectile point type up. I call it Hekifinowatitis. Figures one and three are photographs of a Hekifinowatitis knife form found in 1905 south of Casper, Wyoming by a man named George Cobban. This is not the first artifact I have run across from Mr. Cobban's late 19th / early 20th Century collection. George Cobban appeared to get around on the high plains. I cannot even imagine how good artifact hunting was in 1905. Sigh! 

This Hekifinowatitis knife form measures 71 mm long (2.8 inches long), 37.5 mm wide, and 6 mm thick for a width to thickness ratio of 6.3, falling below the arbitrary ratio of 7 or greater for ultrathin knife forms. This artifact’s flintknapper used uncommon Hartville Uplift pretty-in-pink dendritic jasper. 

Figure Three. Side B of the Hekifinowatitis knife form found in 1905
in Natrona County, Wyoming. John Bradford Branney Collection.  

Some people believe that this knife form came from the Jimmy Allen Paleoindian Complex after the artifacts found at the Jimmy Allen site south of Laramie, Wyoming. However, I am sticking with the Hek-if-i-no-wat-it-is projectile point type. The knife form exhibits phenomenal workmanship and fine marginal retouch. The flaking patterns exhibit Paleoindian influences. If I had to guess, which I am doing, I would guess that a Paleoindian made this Hekifinowatitis sometime between eleven and eight thousand years ago. 

What do you think? 

2 comments:

  1. Agreed. Looks like some possible overshot flake scaring on both sides.

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  2. I've come to know how difficulty it is to correctly type every point and blade found. I kind of figure only 35% to 40% of points recovered can be correctly identified to type. Given all the broken, the use-worn, the oddball examples and the blended forms resulting from cultural interfacings, there is too often a real lack of diagnostic attributes in enough number to type every point

    In my own work with a small sampling of Solutrean material found around the Chesapeake Bay, efforts to pigeonhole several points into traditionally US recognizable point types left me empty-handed. I had to seek elsewhere and as I did so, my suspicions led me to speak with experts in that particular lithic technology belonging to the Solutrean culture. I was lucky in that each piece was whole and undamaged, its attributes clear and understandable

    But getting back to US typologies, whose ranges of form, from pristine to expended, are virtually endless, opinions holding more benefit as opinions rather than definitive type-names given as absolutes

    ...and one might never know what one might find--an alabates chert Early Triangle or a trans-paleo Pelican, both a thousand miles from its home-range, discovered on a bay-shoreline.

    For those such as myself who enjoy researching types' attributes and trying to draw conclusions that are sound enough to pass muster among my peers, the challenge is constant, the rewards regarding knowledge gained immense and the certainty of my opinions just vague enough to keep me looking for answers (and admitting to myself too often that I do not really know much at all

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