Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T05:29:27.937Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Unnotched Triangular Points on Village Sites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

William Engelbrecht
William Engelbrecht*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York Buffalo State, Buffalo, NY 14222 (engelbwe@gmail.com)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Unnotched triangular arrowpoínts and point fragments are sometimes found in large numbers on village sites in the Midwest and East. The possible reason or reasons for this are rarely considered. These points were used for both warfare and hunting. An attack on a village with a volley of arrows provides the most obvious explanation for large numbers of points and point fragments. Alternatively, using arrowpoints that detached within their target prey would have resulted in points and point fragments being brought back to a village in meat. These possibilities are considered in explaining the large number of points from an iroquoian village site in western New York.

Resumen

Resumen

En pueblos del medio oeste y del este de los Estados Unidos se han encontrado con frecuencia un número elevado de puntas de flechas triangulares sin muesca o fragmentos de ellas, aunque raramente se ha considerado la razón de su presencia en los yacimientos. Estas puntas se empleaban tanto para la guerra como para la caza. Una razón obvia sería un ataque contra un pueblo mediante una lluvia de flechas, lo que explicaría el número y la condición fragmentaria de muchas de las puntas. Otra posible explicación sería que estas puntas de flecha se desprenderían de la carne de la presa de caza una vez transportada al pueblo. Este ensayo analiza ambas posibilidades para explicar la presencia de las numerosas puntas encontradas en un pueblo iroqués localizado en el oeste del estado de Nueva York.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 79 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 353 - 367
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Barrett, Samuel A., and Gifford, Edward W. 1933 Miwok Material Culture. Bulletin of the Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee.Google Scholar
Birch, Jennifer, and Williamson, Ronald F. 2012 The Mantle Site: An Archaeological History of an Ancestral Wendat Community. Altamira, Lanham, Maryland.Google Scholar
Bleed, Peter 1986 The Optimal Design of Hunting Weapons: Maintainability or Reliability. American Antiquity 51:737–747.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boszhardt, Robert F. 2003 Projectile Point Guide for the Upper Mississippi River Valley. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City.Google Scholar
Bradley, James W. 1987 Evolution of the Onondaga Iroquois. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse.Google Scholar
Brose, David S. 1994 The South Park Village Site and the Late Prehistoric Whittlesey Tradition of Northeast Ohio. Monographs in World Archaeology No. 20. Prehistory Press, Madison, Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Bryan, Alan L. 1980 The Stemmed Point Tradition: An Early Technological Tradition in Western North America. In Anthropological Papers in Memory of Earl H. Swanson, Jr., edited by Lucile B. Harten, Claude N. Warren, and Donald R. Tuohy, pp. 77–107. Special Publication of the Idaho Museum of Natural History, Pocatello.Google Scholar
Carmody, Michael L. 2003 Tools of Contact: A Functional Analysis of the Cameron Site Chipped-Stone Assemblage. In Stone Tool Traditions in the Contact Era, edited by Charles R. Cobb, pp. 59–77. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Champlain, Samuel de 1967 [1882] Voyages of Samuel De Champlain. Translated by Charles Pomery Otis. Prince Society, Boston, Vol. XIII. Burt Franklin, New York.Google Scholar
Cheshier, Joseph, and Kselly, Robert L. 2006 Projectile Point Shape and Durability: The Effect of Thickness:Length. American Antiquity 71:353–363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christenson, Andrew L. 1997 Side-Notched and Unnotched Arrowpoints: Assessing Functional Differences. In Projectile Technology, edited by Heidi Knecht, pp. 131–142. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowan, Frank 1990 Tools Away from Home: An Examination of Tool Discard Patterns at Foraging Locations. Paper presented at the 30th Annual Meeting of the Northeastern Anthropological Association, Burlington, Vermont.Google Scholar
Dragoo, Don W. 1955 Excavations at the Johnston Site, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 25:85–141.Google Scholar
Drake, Samuel G. 1851 Indian Captivities, or Life in the Wigwam: Being the True Narratives of Captives Who Have Been Carried Away by the Indians, from the Frontier Settlements of the U.S., from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. Derby and Miller, Auburn, New York.Google Scholar
Dye, David H. 2009 War Paths, Peace Paths: An Archaeology of Cooperation and Conflict in Native Eastern North America. Altamira Press, Lanham, Maryland.Google Scholar
Engelbrecht, William 1987 Factors Maintaining Low Population Density among the Prehistoric New York Iroquois. American Antiquity 52:13–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engelbrecht, William 1991 Erie. The Bulletin: Journal of the New York State Archaeological Association 107:1–8.Google Scholar
Engelbrecht, William 1994 The Eaton Site: Preliminary Analysis of the Iroquoian Component. The Bulletin: Journal of the New York State Archaeological Association 107:1–8.Google Scholar
Engelbrecht, William 2003 Iroquoia: The Development of a Native World. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse.Google Scholar
Engelbrecht, William 2009 Defense in an Iroquois Village. In Iroquois Archaeology and Analytic Scale, edited by Laurie E. Miroff and Timothy D. Knapp, pp. 179–187. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.Google Scholar
Engelbrecht, William, Bergslien, Elisa, Miller, Raymond, and Bush, Peter 2008 A Lead Object from the Eaton Site. The Bulletin: Journal of the New York State Archaeological Association 124:69–77.Google Scholar
Fenton, William N. 1978 Northern Iroquoian Culture Patterns. In Northeast, edited by Bruce Trigger, pp. 296–321. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 15, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Finlayson, William D. 1985 The 1975 and 1978 Rescue Excavations at the Draper Site: Introduction and Settlement Patterns. Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper No. 130. National Museum of Man, Ottawa.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friis-Hansen, Jan 1990 Mesolithic Cutting Arrows: Functional Analysis of Arrows Used in Hunting of Large Game. Antiquity 64:494–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Funk, Robert E. and Kuhn, Robert D. 2003 Three Sixteenth-Century Mohawk Iroquois Village Sites. New York State Museum Bulletin No. 503. New York State Education Department, Albany.Google Scholar
Gehring, Charles T., and Starna, William A. 2013 A Journey into Mohawk and Oneida Country, 1634–1635: The Journal of Harmen Meyndertsz. van den Bogaert. Rev. ed. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse.Google Scholar
Gramly, Richard Michael 1977 Deerskins and Hunting Territories: Competition for a Scarce Resource. American Antiquity 42:601–605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, John P., and Means, Bernard K. 2002 Maize and Villages: A Summary and Critical Assessment of Current Northeast Early Late Prehistoric Evidence. In Northeast Subsistence-Settlement Change A.D. 700–1300, edited by John P. Hart and Christina B. Rieth, pp. 345–358. New York State Museum Bulletin No. 496. University of the State of New York at Albany.Google Scholar
Hough, Walter 1891 Arrow Feathering and Pointing. American Anthropologist 4:60–63.Google Scholar
Jackson, Douglas K. 2003 Introduction to the Hoxie Farm Site 11CK4 and the ITARP Investigations. Paper presented at the 2003 Midwest Archaeological Conference, Milwaukee.Google Scholar
Jelks, Edward B. 1993 Observations on the Distributions of Certain Arrow-Point Types in Texas and Adjoining Regions. Lithic Technology 18:9–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, Sharon 2004 Endscrapers from the Eaton Site. The Bulletin: Journal of the New York State Archaeological Association 120:37–46.Google Scholar
Justice, Noel D. 1987 Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of the Midcontinental and Eastern United States. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.Google Scholar
Justice, Noel D. 2002 Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of the Southwestern United States. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.Google Scholar
Keeley, Lawrence H. 1982 Hafting and Retooling: Effects on the Archaeological Record. American Antiquity 47:798–809.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keeley, Lawrence H. 1996 War before Civilization. University of Oxford Press, New York.Google Scholar
Keener, Craig S. 1999 An Ethnohistorical Analysis of Iroquois Assault Tactics Used against Fortified Settlements of the Northeast in the Seventeenth Century. Ethnohistory 46:777–807.Google Scholar
Kehoe, Thomas F. 1966 The Small Side-Notched Point System of the Northern Plains. American Antiquity 31:827–841.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kent, Barry C. 1984 Susquehanna’s Indians. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Anthropological Series No. 6. Harrisburg.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Robert 1996 A Comparison of Mohawk and Onondaga Projectile Point Assemblages. Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 12:27–34.Google Scholar
Milner, George R. 2005 Nineteenth-Century Arrow Wounds and Perceptions of Prehistoric Warfare. American Antiquity 70:144–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, Lewis Henry 1850 Report to the Regents of the University, Upon the Articles Furnished to the Indian Collection. New York State Cabinet of Antiquities’ Annual Report 3:65–97.Google Scholar
Albany, Musil, Robert, R. 1988 Functional Efficiency and Technological Change: A Hafting Tradition Model for Prehistoric North America. In Early Human Occupation in Far Western North America: The Clovis-Archaic Interface, edited by Judith A. Willig, C. Melvin Aikens, and John L. Fagan, pp. 373–387. Nevada State Museum Anthropological Papers 21. Las Vegas.Google Scholar
Nelson, Margaret C. 1991 The Study of Technological Organization. In Archaeological Method and Theory, Vol. 3, edited by Michael B. Schiffer, pp. 57–100. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Neusius, Phillip D. 1996 Lithic-Assemblage Variability in the Parker Collection. In Reanalyzing the Ripley Site: Earthworks and Late Prehistory on the Lake Erie Plain, edited by Lynne P. Sullivan, pp. 69–77. New York State Museum Bulletin No. 489. University of the State of New York at Albany.Google Scholar
Noble, William C. 1978 The Neutral Indians. In Essays in Northeastern Anthropology in Memory of Marian E. White, edited by William E. Engelbrecht and Donald K. Grayson, pp. 152–164. Occasional Publications in Northeastern Anthropology No. 5. Department of Anthropology, Franklin Pierce College, Rindge, New Hampshire.Google Scholar
Odell, George H., and Cowan, Frank 1986 Experiments with Spears and Arrows on Animal Targets. Journal of Field Archaeology 13:195–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Donnell, Neil P. 2003 Eaton Longhouses: Considering the Development of a Standardized Architecture. North American Archaeologist 24:215–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, Arthur C. 1918 A Prehistoric Iroquoian Site on the Reed Farm, Richmond Mills, Ontario County, N.Y. Researches and Transactions of the New York State Archeological Association Vol. 1, No. 1. Lewis H. Morgan Chapter, Rochester, New York.Google Scholar
Pendergast, James F. 1994 The Kakouagoga or Kahkwas: An Iroquoian Nation Destroyed in the Niagara Region. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 138:96–144.Google Scholar
Pipes, Marie-Lorraine 2009 The Eaton Site Faunal Report. Electronic document, https://core.tdar.org/document/6046.Google Scholar
Pope, Saxton 1923 Hunting with the Bow and Arrow. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Poplawski, Piotr, Kwoka, Joshua, and Engelbrecht, William 2012 Rethinking Palisades in the Northeast: Evidence from the Eaton Site. Northeast Anthropology 77–78:71–87.Google Scholar
Pratt, Peter P. 1976 Archaeology of ’the Oneida Iroquois, Vol. 1. Occasional Publications in Northeastern Anthropology No. 1. Rindge, New Hampshire.Google Scholar
Prezzano, Susan C. 1992 Longhouse, Village, and Palisade: Community Patterns at the Iroquois Southern Door. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, State University of New York at Binghamton.Google Scholar
Pyszczyk, Heinz W. 1999 Historic Period Metal Projectile Points and Arrows, Alberta, Canada: A Theory for Aboriginal Arrow Design on the Great Plains. Plains Anthropologist 44:163–187.Google Scholar
Railey, Jim A. 2010 Reduced Mobility or the Bow and Arrow? Another Look at “Expedient” Technologies and Sedentism. American Antiquity 75:259–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rayner-Herter, Nancy 2001 The Niagara Frontier Iroquois: A Study of Sociopolitical Development. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, State University of New York at Buffalo.Google Scholar
Ritchie, William A. 1947 Archaeological Evidence for Ceremonialism in the Owasco Culture. Researches and Transactions of the New York State Archeological Association Vol. 11, No. 2. Lewis H. Morgan Chapter, Rochester, New York.Google Scholar
Ritchie, William A. 1971 A Typology and Nomenclature for New York Projectile Points. New York State Museum and Science Service Bulletin No. 384. University of the State of New York at Albany.Google Scholar
Rogers, Spencer 1940 The Aboriginal Bow and Arrow of North America and Eastern Asia. American Anthropologist 42:255–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutter, William E. 1984 The Upper Mississippian Component at the Fort Meigs Site, Northwest Ohio, with Special Emphasis on the Ceramic Assemblage. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo.Google Scholar
Sagard, Gabriel 1939 [1632] Sagard’s Long Journey to the Country of the Hurons. Champlain Society, Toronto.Google Scholar
Salisbury, Roderick B. 2001 Lithic and Ceramic Cross-Mends at the Eaton Site. The Bulletin: Journal of the New York State Archaeological Association 117:49–56.Google Scholar
Seaver, James E. 1961 [1823] A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison. Corinth Books, New York.Google Scholar
Smith, Kevin P., Engelbrecht, William E., and Holland, John D. 2010 Late Paleoindian Archaeology at the Eaton Site, Western New York. Current Research in the Pleistocene 27:142–145.Google Scholar
Snow, Dean R. 1995 Mohawk Valley Archaeology: The Sites. Institute for Archaeological Studies, State University of New York at Albany.Google Scholar
Snow, Dean R., and Starna, William A. 1989 Sixteenth-Century Depopulation: A View from the Mohawk Valley. American Anthropologist 91:142–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Socci, Mary Catherine 1995 The Zooarchaeology of the Mohawk Valley. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven.Google Scholar
Theler, James L., and Boszhardt, Robert F. 2003 Twelve Millennia: Archaeology of the Upper Mississippi River. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Theler, James L., and Boszhardt, Robert F. 2006 Collapse of Crucial Resources and Culture Change: A Model for the Woodland to Oneota Transformation in the Upper Midwest. American Antiquity 71:433–472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, David Hurst 1978 Arrowheads and Atlatl Darts: How the Stones Got the Shaft. American Antiquity 43:461–472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, Ian 2003 Cutting-Edge Technology. Missouri Archaeological Society Quarterly 20:14–18.Google Scholar
Thwaites, Reuben G. (editor) 1896–1901 The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents. 73 vols. Burrows Brothers, Cleveland, Ohio.Google Scholar
Timmins, Peter A. 1997 The Calvert Site: An Interpretive Framework for the Early Iroquoian Village. Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper 156. Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Titmus, Gene L., and Woods, James C. 1986 An Experimental Study of Projectile Point Fracture Patterns. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 8:37–49.Google Scholar
Tuck, James A. 1971 Onondaga Iroquois Prehistory; A Study in Settlement Archaeology. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse.Google Scholar
VanStone, J.W. 1985 Material Culture of the Davis Inlet and Barren Ground Naskapi: The William Duncan Strong Collection. Fieldiana Anthropology New Series No. 7. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warrick, Gary 1984 Reconstructing Ontario Iroquois Village Organization. National Museum of Man Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper No. 124. National Museums of Canada, Ottawa.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, Marian E. 1961 Iroquois Culture History in the Niagara Frontier Area of New York State. Anthropological Papers No. 16. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, Marian E. 1978 Neutral and Wenro. In Northeast, edited by Bruce Trigger, pp. 407–111. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 15, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Wilson, Thomas 1899 Arrowpoints, Spearheads, and Knives of Prehistoric Times. Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1897, pp. 811–988. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Wray, Charles R, Sempowski, Martha L., and Saunders, Lorraine P. 1991 Tram and Cameron: Two Early Contact Era Seneca Sites. Charles F. Wray Series in Seneca Archaeology, Vol. 2, Charles F. Hayes, III, general editor. Research Records No. 21. Rochester Museum and Science Center, Rochester, New York.Google Scholar