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DEBERT/CLOVIS
POINT
VAIL SITE
OXFORD COUNTY, MAINE
COLLECTION OF THE
MAINE STATE MUSEUM
COPYRIGHT
DECEMBER 31, 2005 PETER A. BOSTROM
CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST
#P-60
DEBERT-CLOVIS POINT
VAIL SITE
OXFORD COUNTY, MAINE
By
Richard Michael Gramly, Ph.D.
This resharpened, but still functional, fluted point is restored from
two pieces found separately. The basal fragment was discovered in 1983
at the Vail habitation site. The tip, on the other hand, was recovered
in 1980 from the kill site #1, which lies approximately 259 m to the
west. Presumably the tip was broken off during an annual caribou hunt
and the spear shaft with the basal fragment still attached was taken
back to the encampment for refitting.
This
conjoined fluted point is one of seven restored projectile points from
the Vail habitation and kill site complex. The odds of restoring spear
tips damaged 10,500 – 11,000 years ago on a hunt are small. At only
one other North American fluted point site have similar restorations
been made, viz., the Murray Springs site in Arizona.
The
base and tip of V. 5582-10787 have weathered different colors as they
were buried in separate soil zones for thousands of years and underwent
different chemical reactions.
This
specimen has a deep basal concavity, which is 6-7 mm deeper that the
norm for the Vail series of fluted points as a whole.
The
raw material is Cambro-Ordovician chert, presumably from outcrops at
Ledge Ridge, which lies a day’s walk north of the Vail site.
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