JULY 2008 CAST
STEMMED BRONZE AGE POINT, AFGHANISTAN

STEMMED POINT
AFGHANISTAN
BRONZE AGE - 3500 TO 1200 B.C.
PRIVATE COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT JUNE 30, 2008 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #BR-1

STEMMED POINT
AFGHANISTAN
BRONZE AGE
PRIVATE COLLECTION

  This stemmed arrow point that was collected many years ago in Afghanistan. Jim Shaffer, PhD., has identified this point as "based on style, this is probably a Bronze Age point dating to sometime between 3500 and 1200 B.C. This type of point is known mainly from Bronze Age sites in northern Afghanistan."
   This point is made of good quality brown chert. It measures 3 1/8 inches (7.9 cm) long and 3/16 inch (4 mm) thick.

JUNE 2008 CAST
KIMBERLY POINT, AUSTRALIA

KIMBERLY POINT
NORTHWESTERN AUSTRALIA
EST. A.D. 500 TO EUROPEAN CONTACT
PRIVATE COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT MAY 31, 2008 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #AS-1
KIMBERLY POINT
NORTHWESTERN AUSTRALIA
PRIVATE COLLECTION

    This Kimberley spear point was collected in northwestern Australia at Point George IV in 1910. It is bifacially flaked. The edges are serrated and it has a very sharp needle-like point. This Kimberly point is made of gray quartzite and it measures 2 3/16 inches (5.5 cm) long.
    Kimberley points are Australia's most famous flaked stone artifacts. They were named after the semi-arid northwest region called the Kimberley Plateau. The aboriginal people living there made the first examples sometime between A.D. 500 and AD. 1000. They continued to be made until European contact and as tourists items in recent times.
    Kimberley points are projectile points that were attached to the ends of spears on foreshafts. The foreshafts measure between (3 feet 3 inches to 4 feet 11 inches ( 1 and 1.5 meters) long and the spear shaft measured between 4 feet 11 inches to 6 feet 7 inches ( 1.5 and 2 meters) long. The point was hafted into a notch with resin that was usually obtained from porcupine grass. The resin was heated and applied for several centimeters down the foreshaft. No other hafting material was used.
     Spears tipped with Kimberley points were thrown through the air with a spear-thrower called a womera. A womera is a multi-purpose tool that could be used for several different functions. It could be used to propel spears through the air, the curved wooden handle could serve as a small dish, it could be used as a fire making tool by rapidly rubbing the edge across another piece of wood and it could be used as a cutting tool when a stone adze was hafted on the end of the handle.
    Kimberley points were made from a variety of different cherts, chalcedony, quartzite, crystal and glass. Some of the materials are reported to have been heat-treated to make the stone easier to flake. The Worora tribe, in the northwest Kimberley region, used colorful materials of good quality to make their Kimberley points. They were using translucent orange, red, yellow and white chalcedony, fine grained quartzite that is similar to Hixton from Wisconsin and Spanish Diggings from Wyoming and even quartz crystal and milky quartz. They were also using a variety of other cherts. After European contact they began to use glass from bottles and telegraph insulators.
     The smaller Kimberley points, 2 inches (5 cm) or smaller, were used for hunting and many of the larger examples were used for trade. Even before the Europeans arrived, Kimberley points were prized by people living as much as 1400 kilometers away for their aesthetic qualities and mythological significance. Away from the Kimberley region, they became male prestige items and were hafted onto short handles and used as knives. They were even used in ceremonial activities such as circumcision operations.

 
ORIGINAL ARTIFACT ILLUSTRATED
KIMBERLY POINT
NORTHWESTERN AUSTRALIA
PRIVATE COLLECTION

     This picture shows three views of this Kimberley point from northwestern Australia.

MAY 2008 CAST
LATE STAGE CUMBERLAND PREFORM

LATE-STAGE PREFORM
CUMBERLAND POINT
PALEO-INDIAN
DICKSON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
PRIVATE COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT APRIL 30, 2008 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-75
LATE-STAGE PREFORM
CUMBERLAND POINT
PALEO-INDIAN
DICKSON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
PRIVATE COLLECTION

     This is one of the best examples of a Cumberland point preform found to date. It’s large size, the fact that it’s a late stage preform and that it broke during fluting makes it a valuable study piece. This point was found in two pieces in Dickson County, Kentucky. It was broken during the first attempt to remove a flute flake. The channel flake was struck or pressured off a prepared platform located at the center of the base. The fluted side was also skillfully prepared, prior to fluting, with uniform pressure flaking. The opposite side has not yet received its final reduction series of pressure flaking that would have removed most of the still visible percussion flaking.
    Another point of interest is the break pattern caused from fluting. This Cumberland point preform did not break right at the hinge point of the flute but an inch farther down. The study of these types of break patterns in Cumberland points may eventually determine how these long flutes were removed from their platforms, either by percussion or pressure. This Cumberland point preform is made of Fort Payne chert and measures 6 1/4 inches (15.8 cm) long, 1 3/8 inches (3.5 cm) wide and 7/16 inch (11 mm) thick.

ORIGINAL ARTIFACT ILLUSTRATED
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER IMAGE
LATE-STAGE PREFORM
CUMBERLAND POINT
PALEO-INDIAN
DICKSON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
PRIVATE COLLECTION

     This picture shows both sides and an edge view of the original artifact. The fluted side on the left shows very nicely done pressure flaking and in contrast, the opposite side has an earlier stage percussion flaked pattern. The edge view shows the large channel flake scar, which measures 2 7/8 inches long.

APRIL 2008 CAST
DIHEDRAL BURIN

DIHEDRAL BURIN
TERMO-PIALAT SITE
COUZE VALLEY, FRANCE
UPPER PALEOLITHIC
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY
COPYRIGHT MARCH 31, 2008 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #AU-3
DIHEDRAL BURIN ON BLADE
TERMO-PIALAT SITE
COUZE VALLEY, FRANCE

   This Dihedral Burin was found on the Termo-Pialat site in southern France. This Upper Paleolithic Aurignacian site is located in the Couze Valley in the Dordogne region less than a mile west of the now famous Combe-Capelle site.
    The term dihedral, as it applies to a burin, is a descriptive word that interprets the shape of the working end. The chisel edge is formed by removing two flakes that form two intersecting planes. Burins were developed during the Upper Paleolithic period for shaping implements made of antler, bone and ivory.
   This burin was made from a blade that was struck from a prepared core. Three blade removal scars show the uniformity in which the blades were being struck from the core.
   This blade tool shows evidence of heavy use on the bit. It was made from a very good quality white chert and it measures 2 7/16 inches (6.2 cm) long and 11/16 inches (2.3 cm) wide.

ORIGINAL ARTIFACT ILLUSTRATED
DIHEDRAL BURIN ON BLADE
TERMO-PIALAT SITE
COUZE VALLEY, FRANCE

   The Aurignacian is known for its heavy use of a variety of different stone tools made from blades driven off prepared cores. This is an excellent example of a multi-purpose tool from the Aurignacian stone tool complex. This combination Burin-Scraper shows no signs of heavy use wear. It may have been reduced to its present size from previous resharpenings. This combination multi-purpose tool could have been used for scraping, cutting or engraving.
   Burins were commonly used during Upper Paleolithic times. They are fairly rare in the archaeological record in North America. The chisel-like working edge is created by driving a flake off the thickness of an edge. These tools were used for engraving materials like bone, antler, ivory or wood.
   The Aurignacian stone tool complex extends over much of Europe. It dates to the early part of the Upper Paleolithic between 34,000 and 29,000 years ago. Aurignacian sites are known to have existed during a period of very cold and dry climate. The Aurignacian type-site is Aurignac, which is located in southern France in the region of Haute Garonne.

MARCH 2008 CAST
HOLLAND POINT

HOLLAND POINT
EARLY ARCHAIC
COOPER COUNTY, MISSOURI
PRIVATE COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT FEBRUARY 29, 2008 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED

CAST #A-12
HOLLAND POINT
EARLY ARCHAIC
COOPER COUNTY, MISSOURI
PRIVATE COLLECTION

    This Holland point was found in a cultivated field in 1979 by Len Weidner. This point is a particularly well made example. All of its final stage finishing flakes were skillfully done with "classic Dalton style" pressure flaking. Holland points are stemmed with very slight shoulders. The base of this point is concave and thinned with several pressure flakes. It also has very slight "ears" at the basal corners.
    Holland points date to the Early Archaic period, approximately 10,000 years ago. They were named after Warren Holland for a cache of thirteen points he found in Henry County, Iowa. Holland points have been found in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. This point type actually represent one of the many different forms of Dalton points. This Holland point measures 4 1/2 inches (11.5 cm) long.

FEBRUARY 2008 CAST
CUMBERLAND POINT

CUMBERLAND POINT
PALEO-INDIAN
GLASGOW, KENTUCKY
PRIVATE COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT JANUARY 31, 2008 PETER A. BOSTROM

CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGE TRIPLE IMAGE
ORIGINAL ARTIFACT ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-74

CUMBERLAND POINT
PALEO-INDIAN
GLASGOW, KENTUCKY

    This Cumberland point is referred to as the “Grievo Cumberland.” It was recently rediscovered in an old safe in New Jersey that hadn’t been opened for sixty years. This is an excellent example of a very rare eastern fluted point type. Its most interesting feature is the sharpened edges near the point that were also serrated, an indication that it may also have been used as a knife. It’s made of either St. Genevieve or Fort Payne chert and measures 4 ¾ inches (12 cm) long, 1 3/16 inches (3 cm) wide and 5/16 inch (8.4 mm) thick.
    Cumberland points are diagnostic of the Paleo-Indian period. The only carbon date for a Cumberland point comes from the Dutchess Quarry Cave #1 site in New York. A carbon date taken from a caribou bone produced a date of 10,580 B.C. + 370. Cumberland points have been described as being diagnostic of the Parkhill complex in the Great Lakes area. The Parkhill complex is known for Barnes points, which have a different shape than Cumberland points. Cumberland points are found in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and other states in the southeast.

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