Distinguishing Prehistoric Arrow Points from Dart Points in the Basin-Plateau Region

Figures & data

Figure 1. Schematic drawing of prehistoric composite dart and arrow projectiles with named elements. Not to scale.

Table 1. Comparison of Dart and Arrow Projectile Measurements.

Complete Prehistoric Darts
Variables	Average (cm)	SD	n	Data Sources
Over all length excluding foreshaft	145.8	13.5	20	Supplemental Table S1
Distance from fletching to the end of the nock	11.4	-	5	Guernsey and Kidder 1921
Fletching length	19.0	-	5	Guernsey and Kidder 1921
Maximum main shaft diameter	1.4	-	9	Guernsey and Kidder 1921; Heizer 1938; Sandberg 1950
Foreshaft length	20.0	4.4	67	Supplemental Table S2
Foreshaft diameter	1.1	0.2	76	Supplemental Table S3
Complete Ethnographic Arrows^1
Variable	Average (cm)	SD	n	Data Sources
Over all length including foreshaft	61.8	8.3	172	Folwer and Matley 1979
Distance from fletching to the end of the nock	2.1	0.6	27	Allely and Hamm 2002
Fletching length	14.1	3.0	28	Allely and Hamm 2002
Main shaft diameter	0.76	0.1	172	Folwer and Matley 1979
Foreshaft length	17.4	3.2	70	Folwer and Matley 1979
Foreshaft diameter	0.7	0.1	70	Folwer and Matley 1979

¹ This table presents data from ethnographic Numic arrow specimens collected by Powell between AD 1867 and 1880 (Fowler and Matley 1979) and represent a well dated arrow assemblage from the Basin-Plateau region. Thomas’ (1978:467) assemblage of museum specimens of stone tipped arrows is not included in this analysis. Thomas’ regionally and temporally diverse arrow assemblage is much longer ($\overline{x}$ = 79.7, s = 12.3, n = 86) and does not statistically overlap with the Numic arrows of Basin-Plateau. Shott (1997:89) discusses some possible reasons for these discrepancies.

Table 2. Comparison of Neck Width and Thickness of Dart and Arrow Points.

Neck width (cm)
Type	Average	SD	n
Arrow points	0.6	0.1	644	Hildebrandt and King 2012
Dart points	1.1	0.2	579	Hildebrandt and King 2012
Thickness (cm)
Arrow points	0.3	0.1	760	Hildebrandt and King 2012
Dart points	0.5	0.1	563	Hildebrandt and King 2012

Figure 2. Comparison of the density distribution of the diameter of ethnographic arrow foreshafts with prehistoric dart foreshafts.

Figure 3. Comparison of the density distribution of the neck width of stone arrow points with stone dart points (data from Hildebrandt and King 2012).

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