FLUTED POINT
SUGARLOAF SITE
SOUTH DEERFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS
COPYRIGHT
FEBRUARY 28, 2014 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST
#P-116
FLUTED POINT
SUGARLOAF SITE
SOUTH DEERFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS
by Richard Michael Gramly, PhD
This sharp, small-sized fluted
projectile point (SLF-13) evidently had been lost by its maker before it
could be hafted on a javelin or lance. Its lower edges remained
unground. This rare artifact, which is fashioned of Normanskill chert
from a source in the Hudson River Valley, came to light at a rich
workshop (the “Ulrich Locus”) on the Sugarloaf encampment, where as many
as 150 Clovis-style fluted points were manufactured 12,350 +/- calendar
years ago.
This projectile point may have been intended for use against
caribou, who, it is hypothesized, moved along the Connecticut River
valley before and after calving.
Caribou hunting may have been pursued by descendant Clovis
populations in New England and in Alaska hundreds of years after this
economy and Clovis technology had been abandoned elsewhere in northern
North America.
This point measures 3 1/8 inches (8 cm) long.
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