TIMING OF THE INTRODUCTION OF ARROW TECHNOLOGIES IN THE SALISH SEA, NORTHWEST NORTH AMERICA

Abstract

A substantial amount of recent literature has re-examined the applicability of dart-arrow indices for hafted chipped stone tools from archaeological assemblages ranging from the Columbia Plateau to Californian Coast. As yet, these approaches have not been employed to examine variation in Coast Salish lithic traditions. In this study, we critically apply recent dart-arrow indices and also employ a discriminant function analysis to a dataset of chipped and ground stone points from 49 archaeological sites spanning the past 5000 years in the Salish Sea. hafted retouch index (HRI) is applied to examine the impact that curation has on classification as a dart or arrow. The indices yield different timing for the introduction of arrow technologies in the region, ranging 3500–2000 cal BP, while the HRI suggests that curation has an impact on point classification. These results suggest a more complex, gradual history for the timing of the introduction of bow and arrow technologies in the Salish Sea than previously assumed, with darts and arrows acting as complementary technologies. Our results also suggest that curation may contribute to misclassification of points when using morphometric techniques and thus should be considered when applying dart-arrow indices to assess hafted chipped stone tools.

Keywords:

• Introduction of bow and arrow
• Northwest Coast
• Dart-arrow index
• Hafted biface index
• Tool curation

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Laura Phillips and Patricia Ormerod for their expertise and discussions while Adam N. Rorabaugh examined the collections at the Burke Museum and University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology. We also thank Dr Roy Carlson for allowing Adam N. Rorabaugh to examine his research collections at Simon Fraser University.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adam N. Rorabaugh

Adam N. Rorabaugh is a PhD candidate at Washington State University who has worked on the Northwest Coast for nearly a decade. His research interests focus on the impacts of the emergence of social inequality on the production and reproduction of knowledge and material resources among complex hunter-gatherer-fishers from an evolutionary perspective. Other research interests include the technological organization of lithics and organic (bone, antler, and shell) artifacts on the Northwest Coast. His previous work has ranged from applying phylogenetic methods to examine continuity and change in Coast Salish harpoon technologies, to mathematical models examining the impacts of population dynamics on copying error in material culture.

Correspondence to: Adam N. Rorabaugh, Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, PO Box 644910, Pullman, WA 99164-4910, USA. Email: [email protected]