Science and Technology Production
BREAKAGE PATTERNS ON FISHTAIL PROJECTILE POINTS: EXPERIMENTAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL CASES
Article
Authorship:
Celeste Weitzel ; Nora Flegenheimer ; Jorge Martínez ; Mariano ColomboDate:
2014Publishing House and Editing Place:
Maney and Left Coast PressMagazine:
Ethnoarchaeology, vol. 6 (pp. 81-102) - ISSN 1944-2890Maney and Left Coast Press
ISSN:
1944-2890Summary *
Fishtail projectile points, also known as Fell 1, are dated between 11,000 and 9,500 14C yr BP in South and Central America and have been traditionally considered diagnostic of the early peopling of the continent. In this paper, experimental observations of impact breakage patterns on fishtail projectile point replicas are compared with archaeological points from the Cerro El Sombrero Cima site, in the Argentinian pampas, which exhibit a high breakage ratio and suggest that impact was a major cause of breakage in the assemblage. Also, the position of these fractures is briefly compared to patterns described by J. Bird (1969) for fishtail projectile points from Ecuador and Southern Chile. Information provided by the agent in SIGEVAKey Words
CERRO EL SOMBRERO CIMA SITEEXPERIMENTFISHTAIL PROJECTILE POINTSIMPACT FRACTURES