Jimmy Allen or Frederick Point? Too Close for Comfort

 

Jimmy Allen or Frederick? Too Close for Comfort

by John Bradford Branney

Figure 1 -  High Plains Jimmy Allen and/or Frederick projectile points. Which is which?

The longest point is 3.25 inches long. John Bradford Branney Collection.   

After the projectile points of the Cody Complex came and went in the archaeological record, an abrupt change took place in projectile point technology on the High Plains. The stemmed projectile points with transverse pressure flaking of the Cody Complex disappeared from the archaeological record and a series of lanceolate-shaped projectile points with parallel-oblique flaking appeared. Instead of stemmed Alberta, Scottsbluff, and Eden points from the Cody Complex, the new projectile point style was indented with concave bases and parallel oblique flaking on many. Why the change from stems to indented bases? It might have been that indented bases worked better with the hafting method at the time, or it might be as simple as human preferences shifted. The indented base probably fit as "snug as a bug in a rug" in the hafting elements of the spear or dart weaponry. Paleoindians used what worked. After all, this was not the first time that indented base technology showed up in archaeological records with Clovis, Goshen, Folsom, and Midland as examples. 

Within this Late Paleoindian timeframe, archaeologists have identified and named a plethora of different indented base projectile point types on the High Plains such as Jimmy Allen, Frederick, Andersen, Angostura, Lusk, and others. 

Figure 4 - 1.7 inch long surface found Jimmy Allen point from eastern Colorado. I already hear some of you screaming 

Dalton! Dalton! Dalton! 

John Bradford Branney Collection. 

The variations in Late Paleoindian indented projectile point types added even more confusion to projectile point typology. If anyone tries to convince you that they have Late Paleoindian projectile point typology down pat, they are either a point-type genius (which is a blessed few) or they are pulling your leg. We find similarities in the different projectile point types such as Jimmy Allen, Frederick, Andersen, Angostura, and Lusk, and we find differences (some so subtle they hardly deserve mention). Were the differences seen by different points driven by other factors such as workmanship, quality, style, knapping skill, and/or raw material?    

Figure Four - A surface found knife form from Wyoming.
It is 2.6 inches long with indented base, polished lower
edges and base, and parallel oblique flaking.
Jeb Taylor identified this as a Frederick point.
John Bradford Branney Collection. 

Archaeologist and flintknapping expert Bruce Bradley (Larson et al 2009:271) explained Late Paleoindian projectile point typology this way; After the Cody Complex, there was a technological horizon on the High Plains incorporating the same basic flintknapping technology, but with slightly different styles of projectile points and knife forms. He included the following projectile point types in his analysis; Jimmy Allen, Frederick, Lusk, Brown's Valley, and Angostura. He noted that each type used the same flintknapping process from bifacial percussion reduction through pressure thinning through a final product of projectile points and knife forms. He also noted that oftentimes these different projectile point types exhibited similarity with their parallel oblique flaking.  

The two projectile points in figures three and four are both Late Paleoindian from the High Plains. Other collectors who have seen them have called them Jimmy Allen or Frederick, or even a mid-continent projectile point type called Dalton. What do I call them? Wait and see.         

Figure 5 - University of 
Wyoming anthropologist
William Mulloy. 

In the late 1940s, an adept amateur archaeologist by the name of Jimmy Allen discovered a Paleoindian bison kill site in the Laramie Basin of Wyoming. In 1959, University of Wyoming anthropologist William Mulloy (Figure 5) and associates excavated what he later named the James Allen site. Investigators recovered thirty fragmentary projectile points, all of which had similar characteristics. The projectile points were unnotched and lanceolate-shaped with indented (concave) bases and rounded corners. Dr. Mulloy named the new projectile point Jimmy Allen after the discoverer of the site.   

In Jeb Taylor's Projectile Points of the High Plains (2006), the author described Jimmy Allen points as lanceolate-shaped with carefully executed diagonal flaking and a pronounced basal concavity. In Greg Perino's Selected Preforms, Points, and Knives of the North American Indians (1985), he described Jimmy Allen points by their side and basal edge grinding, diagonal flaking, basal thinning, and rounded basal corners. Both authors appear to be singing from the same sheet of music when it comes to the description of Jimmy Allen points.    

One important point that I want to make before proceeding is that NOT all Jimmy Allen points have diagonal or parallel oblique flaking and NOT all diagonal or parallel oblique flaked projectile points are Jimmy Allen points! 

Figure 6 - Cynthia Irwin-
Williams. 

Cynthia Irwin–Williams (Figure 6) and her brother Henry Irwin discovered what they thought was a new projectile point type at the Harvard University excavations of the Hell Gap site in east-central Wyoming in the 1960s. They named the new point type, Frederick, after the site's landowner. Investigators unearthed twenty-four examples of the so-called Frederick points. Both Cynthia Irwin-Williams (1973) and Henry Irwin recognized the similarities between their newly named Frederick points and Mulloy's Jimmy Allen points. According to Henry Irwin, he believed that Frederick points had a greater degree of basal concavity and a different width to length ratio than Jimmy Allen points (Byrnes 2009:218). Therefore, the label Frederick stuck for the points found at the Hell Gap site.      

In his book, Jeb Taylor described Frederick points with the same diagonal flaking as Jimmy Allen points but stated that Frederick points were thicker with straighter bases. Taylor's 'straighter base' comment appears to contradict Henry Irwin's comment in the previous paragraph. Irwin stated that Frederick points had a greater degree of basal concavity while Taylor wrote Frederick points had straighter bases than Jimmy Allen points. It cannot be both ways. 

Based on Jeb Taylor's study of the original projectile points from both the James Allen and Hell Gap sites, he believed that there were enough differences between Jimmy Allen and Frederick to warrant two separate projectile point types. Taylor also mentioned in his book that he had a personal conversation with George Frison who told him that before Cynthia Irwin-Williams died, she admitted to Frison that Frederick was most likely the same point type as Jimmy Allen. 

I have not studied 'in hand' the original points from the James Allen and Hell Gap sites, but I have handled enough parallel oblique flaked, indented base Late Paleoindian points to believe that Jimmy Allen and Frederick points are the same point type.  

It appears that Jimmy Allen at the James Allen site and Frederick at Hell Gap overlapped in time, providing a little more evidence for their possible relationship. Irwin-Williams et al (1973) determined that the duration of Frederick at Hell Gap lasted from approximately 8,400 to 8,000 years BP while recent dating techniques at the James Allen bison kill site placed the event sometime around 8,405 years BP (Knudson and Kornfeld 2007).  

To summarize, it is my opinion that Jimmy Allen and Frederick points are the same point type, and as my father used to put it, "That's close enough for government work!"  

REFERENCES CITED  

Byrnes, Allison

2009    Frederick Component at Locality I in  Hell Gap: A Stratified Paleoindian Campsite at the Edge of the Rockies by Mary Lou Larson, Marcel Kornfeld, and George C. Frison.  University of Utah. 

Irwin-Williams, Cynthia, Henry T. Irwin, George Agogino, and C Vance Haynes
1973    Hell Gap: Paleo-Indian occupation on the High Plains. Plains Anthropologist  18(59):40-53.     

Knudson, Ruth Ann, and Marcel Kornfeld  
2007    A New Date for the James Allen Site, Laramie Basin, Wyoming. Current Research in the Pleistocene 24:112-114.  

Larson, Mary Lou, Marcel Kornfeld, and George C. Frison

2009    Hell Gap: A Stratified Paleoindian Campsite at the Edge of the Rockies. University of Utah.        

Perino, Gregory
1985    Selected Preforms, Points, and Knives of the North American Indians, Volume I.  Points and Barbs Press, Idabel, Okla.  

Taylor, Jeb
2006   Projectile points of the High Plains. Sheridan Books, Chelsea, MI.     

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