Primitive North American Stone Weaponry - Mysteries

[cwpayton]

cant Remember who, what ph outfitter it was in africa, think it was up north maybe Zimbabwe, but they had some amazing dino tracks in riverbed bedrock ,big 3 toed tracks, was on u tube .

 

[Altitude sickness]

These are in Chewore South. There were larger ones also.

 

[fourfive8]

I’d say those are classic “ big bird” tracks deep and well defined! I have quite a lot of exposed sandstone here on my place and have never ID’d any definitive tracks but there are many casts and impressions of unrecognizable debris seen between the layers. Slight thread drift (maybe by a couple hundred million years) but interesting overlay of history nonetheless. Have found a few gastroliths mixed in with pre-Columbian artifacts here though. Hard to say if because of pure coincidence or if the Indians periodically gathered and transported them here because gizzard stones as selected by the “dinos” were usually made of useful, tool making material like cryptocrystalline quartz or chert??

Found this gastrolith, among a few others, here a couple of years ago

 

[fourfive8]

I think most true knapped Pre-Colombian arrow points are in the 1” to 1 1/4” range. Makes sense because recovered bows would be in proportion to a relatively small arrow and point.

First pic shows two “average” arrow points from here in SW Colorado and seem to be average representatives of most all I’ve found in Western US. The point on far right is tiny, by far the smallest I’ve ever found and is about 1/2”. It shows it was damaged then another notch added after the damage so it could again be hafted to a shaft,

The second photo shows an average SW US arrow point with an original forged English arrow point ca 1200-1300… Robin Hood era Size perspective makes sense because the English longbow was so much larger, of much greater draw poundage (100-150 lbs) than pre-Columbian bows of the Western Hemisphere.

 

[CoElkHunter]

I think most true knapped Pre-Colombian arrow points are in the 1” to 1 1/4” range. Makes sense because recovered bows would be in proportion to a relatively small arrow and point.

First pic shows two “average” arrow points from here in SW Colorado and seem to be average representatives of most all I’ve found in Western US. The point on far right is tiny, by far the smallest I’ve ever found and is about 1/2”. It shows it was damaged then another notch added after the damage so it could again be hafted to a shaft,

The second photo shows an average SW US arrow point with an original forged English arrow point ca 1200-1300… Robin Hood era Size perspective makes sense because the English longbow was so much larger, of much greater draw poundage (100-150 lbs) than pre-Columbian bows of the Western Hemisphere.

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Wow, what could they have killed with an arrowhead that small and primitive?

 

[fourfive8]

Wow, what could they have killed with an arrowhead that small and primitive?

Good question about the small point. I’ve thought about it from all angles. Only thing I can guess it that they were used on proportionally smaller arrows, fired by smaller bows. This point is not much smaller than the San Bushman steel points used for really large game. But, they cannot be compared because the Bushman points need not cause extensive bleeding or damage…. just a method of introducing poison.

I’ve often often heard “bird point” used to describe most all the average smaller, true arrow points, including those used for deer-sized game. But these tiny point are really in a class by themselves. And “bird point” really doesn’t make any sense considering the size of most birds… with the exception of maybe grouse and turkey. My best guess would be small point on small arrow shot from small bow for really small game like squirrels, marmots, jack rabbits, snowshoes, cottontails, grouse, turkeys, fawn deer, etc ???

 

[steve white]

Good question about the small point. I’ve thought about it from all angles. Only thing I can guess it that they were used on proportionally smaller arrows, fired by smaller bows. This point is not much smaller than the San Bushman steel points used for really large game. But, they cannot be compared because the Bushman points need not cause extensive bleeding or damage…. just a method of introducing poison.

I’ve often often heard “bird point” used to describe most all the average smaller, true arrow points, including those used for deer-sized game. But these tiny point are really in a class by themselves. And “bird point” really doesn’t make any sense considering the size of most birds… with the exception of maybe grouse and turkey. My best guess would be small point on small arrow shot from small bow for really small game like squirrels, marmots, jack rabbits, snowshoes, cottontails, grouse, turkeys, fawn deer, etc ???

Or people?...

 

[Sarg]

I know this thread is about American stone weapons but I found a stone point in a Big Scrub Bull Lynn Thompson shot in the NT of Australia,
I was guiding the Relentless Pursuit guys, who were filming some hunts, we were doing a autopsy/knife test & I found this stone point stuck in the intestine area, it is small & I could never work out how it got into a big full grown Scrub Bull ?

Only pic I have from the day.

 

[fourfive8]

Point in paunch of bull…Mystery? I’d say so!!

 

[Hunt anything]

Or people?...

Back before my grandfather died he kept our artifact collection in the old smoke house behind their house in Waynesboro Virginia, he never locked the door and people would come by and just wonder around and look at the artifacts, mounted birds and butterflies. His most prized possessions were an old civil war cavalry saber and a human vertebrae with an arrow head lodged in it. One day a couple of teenagers broke into the case they were in and stole them. Needless to say the door was always locked and people were always escorted in the shack as we called it after this incident.

 

[fourfive8]

In 1835 at the Green River rendezvous, mountain man Jim Bridger had missionary/physician Dr Marcus Whitman remove an arrow point embedded in his back. It was an iron trade point from an arrow shot by an Indian during a skirmish some three years earlier. It’s tip had curled over after hitting a rib. When the wound was fresh, an attempt to remove it was unsuccessful. All I can say is Bridger was tougher than I’ll ever be!

Illustration found in “Firrarms, Traps, & Tools of the Mountain Men by CP Russell.