A Simple Experiment Challenges the Inference that Macro-fractures on Chipped-stone Tools are Clear Evidence of High-Velocity Impacts

ABSTRACT

The paradigmatic assumption that prehistoric chipped stone points primarily functioned as hafted armatures of composite hunting weapons is often tested with replicates that are hafted as armatures. Thus, the tests are whether they make good armatures, not whether they were armatures. This precludes systematic inquiry into possible alternative functions and inferences for these tools. We find the evidence marshalled to prove armature use is often equivocal. We demonstrate through experiment that most macro-fractures, which are often cited as the most diagnostic indicator of armature use because they are only caused by high-velocity impacts, can also be produced by low-velocity impacts. Our results emphasize the need to recognize the limits of functional inferences and the importance of multiple, testable hypotheses.

KEYWORDS:

• Clovis
• diagnostic impact fractures
• lithic tool experimental design

Acknowledgments

We thank Ryan McDonnell of the George Washington Ceramics Lab who fired the replica porcelain Clovis points to our specifications. We also thank Heather Smith for chairing the session Clovis: New Research, New Debates at the 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Albuquerque, NM, where an early version of this paper was presented.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

David K. Thulman

David K. Thulman is a professorial lecturer in the Anthropology Department at George Washington University. He is president of the Archaeological Research Cooperative, Inc. His work focuses on Paleoindian and Early Archaic social structures in Eastern North America, artifact shape analysis, radiocarbon analyses, and the ethics of cultural property.

Brendan Fenerty

Brendan Fenerty is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geosciences and a Research Associate with the Argonaut Archaeological Research Fund in the School of Anthropology at The University of Arizona. His research focuses primarily on the late Quaternary hydrology and soil-geomorphology of desert basins and piedmonts in the American Southwest and northwest Mexico and, secondarily, the geoarchaeology of terminal Pleistocene–early Holocene (Paleoindian) archaeological sites.