The Middle Archaic - The Mallory Projectile Point Type

 

Figure One - A few Mallory dart points and knife forms from the Author's collection.
All surface found on private land in Wyoming and Colorado. The centerpiece dart point
is 1.6 inches long. A good average age for Mallory is 4,500 years old.     

In my article, I will not use the term “point” 

in a functional sense, but as shorthand for “hafted biface”. 

Also, when I refer to generic "McKean points", I am 

referring to both Lanceolate and Shouldered varieties.   

In my last article on the Middle Archaic on the High Plains, I discussed the McKean Complex and two projectile point styles and types found with McKean cultural materials. Those two projectile point types were McKean Lanceolate and McKean Shouldered. Legacy writers and collectors often refer to the lanceolate-shaped projectile points as simply McKean points and the shouldered projectile points as Duncan and Hanna points. In my discussion below, I will refer to them as McKean Lanceolate points, and Duncan and Hanna points simply as McKean Shouldered points.  

Figure Two - Middle Plains Archaic projectile point types surface found on private land
on the high plains states. From left to right; Oxbow, McKean Lanceolate,
Hanna or McKean Shouldered, Duncan or McKean Shouldered, and Mallory.
Oxbow point is 2.7 inches long. John Bradford Branney Collection.    

There is another projectile point type associated with the McKean Complex that I did not cover in my first article on the Middle Plains Archaic. Archaeologists and collectors call this side-notched projectile point, Mallory (figure 1). In 1933, archaeologist W. D. Strong reported that investigators found side-notched points associated with lanceolate and shouldered points on an isolated mesa called Signal Butte along the North Platte River in western Nebraska. Ultimately, scientists classified those Signal Butte points as McKean Complex from the Middle Plains Archaic time period. 

Compared to McKean Complex type points, Mallory points are an 'odd duck'. When a person handles enough McKean points, they understand how lanceolate-shaped McKean points transitioned into or coexisted with the shouldered varieties of McKean points. However, the Mallory points have a different look and feel about them. Mallory points were quite thin, much thinner than your typical McKean point. Based on my experience, I believe Middle Archaic knappers made McKean points more robust and thicker than Mallory points on purpose. Perhaps, they used the thinner Mallory points for a different functional use beyond just projectile points. Of course, my statement assumes that the same culture who made McKean points made the Mallory points as well. 

Based on my own collection, the workmanship on Mallory points was better than your average McKean point. Anyone who has studied Mallory and McKean points side by side would question whether these point types were made by the same people or by two separate cultures of people, coexisting at the same time. 

Mallory points were thin, wide with deep side notches, and in some cases, a third notch in the center of their bases (figure three). In several examples in my collection, it appears the Middle Archaic flintknappers selected thinner flakes when they made Mallory points. Perhaps, Middle Archaic people used Mallory points as filleting or butchering knives where thinness and sharpness were required attributes. The thinness and fragility of Mallory points are the main reason artifact hunters and archaeologists seldom find them complete and unbroken.

Figure Three - Typical Mallory dart point. 
John Bradford Branney Collection. 

At Signal Butte in the 1930s, McKean styles and Mallory points were found within the same geologic strata at the lowest archaeological level, indicating the two types of points coexisted. Corroborating evidence for the coexistence of Mallory and McKean points at an archaeological site came in the 1970s, eighteen miles north of Sinclair, Wyoming. Amateur archaeologist William E. Scoggin discovered the Scoggin site, a Middle Archaic bison kill, while surface hunting for artifacts in the summer of 1971. The site lies at the foot of a hogback ridge near the edge of Coal Creek Canyon in the Haystack Mountains (figure four). Investigators found the remnants of a corral or pound structure with an extensive bison bone bed, food processing features, and an assemblage of McKean projectile points. Investigators found that two bison kill episodes occurred over a brief period of time. The radiocarbon date of the bone bed was 4540 ±100 years BP, placing it in the Middle Plains Archaic. The discovery of McKean and Mallory projectile points corroborated the radiocarbon date. 

Figure Four - The Scoggin site. Hunters drove the bison 
over the edge of the steep talus slope where at the bottom 
was a fence line. 

The investigators found postholes connected by a low wall of dry-laid flat stones at the base of a steep talus slope seven meters high (figure four). The hunters allegedly drove the bison over the edge of the caprock and down the steep talus slope into the fence line where the hunters dispatched them with spears and darts. The large numbers of McKean and Mallory dart points indicated the manner in which the hunters killed the bison. 

The hunters at the Scoggin used local cherts to make their projectile points. The projectile points at the site showed excellent workmanship, and a few of the points were quite thin with collateral flaking on both sides (atypical for McKean points). The investigation concluded that the hunters at the Scoggin site used Mallory and McKean points during the two bison kill episodes. 

Based on what I have read and seen, I have a theory that Mallory points were more of a southern expression of the Middle Archaic McKean Complex. I have never heard of a Mallory point discovered north of Wyoming and South Dakota, including in Canada. To put things in perspective, just because I have not seen any evidence of Mallory point finds in the northern plains doesn't mean they did not exist there. Collectors might have them in their collections, but have not reported or publicized them. 

I base a lot of my theory on the fact that all of my Mallory artifacts came from the southern half of Wyoming or the northern half of Colorado. The farthest north that I have personally found a Mallory point was the Rattlesnake Hills, west of Casper in central Wyoming. Another collector informed me that he found a Mallory point base near Riverton, Wyoming. I do not believe that the archaeologists even found any Mallory points at the original McKean Complex type site in northern Wyoming.         

Figure Five - A few Mallory points from the author's collection showing variation 
in form and materials. The white basal fragment far left is 1.3 inches long.  

While notched points appear to have simplified and improved the hafting process of stone points onto knife, dart and spear shafts, I know from my fifty years of artifact hunting that notched points also tend to break more often than lanceolate-shaped or more robust stemmed points. This is due to the notches weakening the overall structural strength of the point. I have a lot more Mallory point pieces than I do complete or near-complete points. Any High Plains artifact hunter worth his or her salt can tell you that finding a complete Mallory point is a lot harder than finding a McKean lanceolate or shouldered point. One reason might be because they made a higher quantity of traditional McKean points, but I have no doubt that the Mallory points that they did make, had a tough time surviving due to the notches and thinness. 

Do you think McKean and Mallory points came from the same people? Were there formal or informal sects within the culture using different types of projectile points? If the same people made them both, why did you think the Middle Archaic hunters used different types of projectile points? Was it based on the knappers’ freedom of choice and preference, or was there something else driving the choice? Did notched points serve a different functional purpose than unnotched points in the Middle Plains Archaic? 

We might never know the answers to these questions. The only thing we can conclude at this stage is both Mallory and McKean points are Middle Plains Archaic and that both existed at the same time at least in some instances.   

The historical fiction novels written by John Bradford Branney are known for their impeccable research and biting realism. In the Shadows on the Trail Pentalogy, Branney catapults his readers back into Prehistoric America where they struggle to survive against challenges such as predators, climate, and hostile humans. 

Branney holds a geology degree from the University of Wyoming and MBA from the University of Colorado. John lives in the Colorado mountains with his wife, Theresa. His recently published adventure titled Beyond the Campfire is his eleventh book.