Morphologically Similar, but Regionally Distinct: Perdiz Arrow Points from Caddo Burial Contexts in the American Southeast

ABSTRACT

Generally considered diagnostic of Late Prehistoric Toyah assemblages, Perdiz arrow points are characteristic of the transition from the Late Prehistoric to the Protohistoric. If larger Perdiz arrow points from Caddo burials are conceived of as products of trade and/or exchange with Toyah groups, then those with longer blade lengths provide inference to shifts in Caddo selective preference, while those with shorter blade lengths evince local approaches to resharpening and/or retouch that were uniquely Caddo. This study asks whether linear shape variables convey discrete regional resharpening strategies, whether morphological trajectories differ between the northern and southern behavioral regions, and whether morphological disparity differs between larger and smaller size classes, as defined by differences in blade length. Results demonstrate distinct regional resharpening strategies and divergent morphological trajectories for Perdiz arrow points included as Caddo mortuary offerings in the northern and southern behavioral regions.

KEYWORDS:

• computational archaeology
• archaeoinformatics
• geometric morphometrics
• morphological disparity
• phenotypic trajectory analysis
• museum studies
• digital humanities
• STEM
• STEAM

Acknowledgments

I extend my gratitude to the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, the Caddo Nation Tribal Council, Tribal Chairman, and Tribal Historic Preservation Office for their guidance related to the development of the scanning protocols, for permission and access to NAGPRA and previously repatriated collections, and for frank discussions related to language surrounding burial contexts associated with Caddo children. Thanks also to the Anthropology and Archaeology Laboratory at Stephen F. Austin State University for the requisite permissions and access to the NAGPRA items from the Washington Square Mound site and Turner collection, and to Tom A. Middlebrook for brokering access to the Perdiz arrow points from Caddo burials at the Morse Mound site. Thanks also to John E. Dockall, Michael J. Shott, Lauren N. Butaric, David K. Thulman, Jon C. Lohse, C. Britt Bousman, Jeffrey S. Girard, Hiram F. (Pete) Gregory, Thomas R. Hester, Harry J. Shafer, Elton R. Prewitt, Julian A. Sitters, Steven M. Carpenter, Timothy K. Perttula, Bonnie L. Etter, Kersten Bergstrom, Christian S. Hoggard, Emma Sherratt, Dean C. Adams, and Michael L. Collyer for their constructive criticisms, comments, and suggestions throughout the development of this research program, and to the editors and anonymous reviewers for their comments and constructive criticisms, which further improved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data management

The data and analysis code associated with this project can be accessed through the supplementary materials (https://seldenlab.github.io/perdiz.4/) or the GitHub repository (https://github.com/seldenlab/perdiz.4), which is digitally curated on the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/85bu7/). Images and additional information for all Perdiz arrow points used in this study can be viewed and downloaded from the digital comparative collection (https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita-perdiz/). The replicable nature of this undertaking provides a means for others to critically assess and evaluate the various analytical components of this study (sensu Gandrud, 2014; Gray & Marwick, 2019; Peng, 2011), which is a necessary requirement for the production of reliable knowledge.

Additional information

Funding

Components of this analytical workflow were developed and funded by a Preservation Technology and Training grant (P14AP00138) to the author from the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, as well as grants from the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, National Forests and Grasslands in Texas (15-PA-11081300-033) and the United States Forest Service (20-PA-11081300-074). Additional support for this project was provided by the Heritage Research Center at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Notes on contributors

Robert Z. Selden

Robert Z. Selden, Jr. is a Research Associate in the Heritage Research Center at Stephen F. Austin State University, Research Fellow in the Virtual Curation Laboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Associate Professor in the Cultural Heritage Department at Jean Monnet University. He currently serves as the editor of the Index of Texas Archaeology, and moderator of SocArXiv. His research is focused at the confluence of archaeology, biology, computer science, art, and the humanities. Research interests include computational methods, historical biogeography, archaeological theory, archaeological epistemology, and reproducible research.