ABSTRACT
A variety of flaked stone projectile point attributes can affect impact durability, which is the relationship between projectile impact force and point breakage. We examine the role of isometric scaling – size – on impact durability. Using 30 experimentally knapped points that varied predominately only in size, we conducted a ballistics experiment to understand whether points of certain sizes were more likely to break, or more likely to lose length, either absolutely or as a percentage of original length. Our results suggested that points of different sizes did not differ in how much absolute length they lost, but that there is a significant relationship between point size and percentage of original length lost – namely that larger points are more likely to lose less percentage length. Our experimental results suggest that point size should be considered along with shape and other attributes in future studies of impact durability and technological evolution.
Acknowledgements
L.R.M. is funded in part by the Federal TRIO McNair Scholars Program of the U.S. Department of Education, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). M.I.E. and M.W. are supported by the Kent State University College of Arts and Sciences.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
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Notes on contributors
Leanna Maguire
Leanna Maguire is a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas.
Briggs Buchanan
Briggs Buchanan is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Michael Wilson
Michael Wilson is a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio.
Metin I. Eren
Metin I. Eren is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, and a research associate in the Department of Archaeology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, Ohio.