Top 10 Arrowhead Urban Legends & Folklore
Posted on 01. Jan, 2009 by Shannon Graham in Flint Artifacts
Sure you’ve heard them. Maybe even believed them yourself at one time. They are the “old wives’ tales” of the artifact world. And some of them are doozies. These are the stories you heard when you first started collecting or occasionally still might hear in certain circles.
Let’s take a look at some of the more common ones.
1. “Bird points”. This term is a misnomer. It’s the belief that small arrow points were used primarily for hunting birds. While well documented arrow point finds clearly indicate that these small points were used for bringing down deer, buffalo and other small game, many still refer to them as “bird points”.
2. Projectile points with a slight bend, or curvature of the blade, were used for shooting fish in water. The “bend” in the blade is actually the result of the artifact being made from a blade struck off a core. The resulting curved flake was then crafted into a projectile point retaining this arc. As for the urban legend, it’s said the curve was to compensate for the for refraction of light into water. It’s similar to when you reach into water to pick up an object and the object is in a different location than what it appears from the surface. The curve in the projectile is said to compensate for this effect. Jokingly, some say these type points were made for ’shooting around corners’.
3. Arrowhead are made by dripping cold water onto a hot piece of flint. Another variation of this theme is that arrowheads were chipped by applying cold water onto a heated piece of flint with a feather.
4. Triangular points were made for war. Projectiles in the form of a triangle with no stem or notches were said to be ‘war points’. The thinking on this one was that with no stem or notches, the flint tip was not fastened well onto the fore shaft. Therefore when a person was shot, if they tried to pull out the arrow shaft, the flint tip would disengage from the shaft and remain in the body.
5. Projectile points with rounded tips are ’stunners’. Projectiles are used for many things and resharpenings can drastically change the appearance from their original form. Occasionally points are found with very distinct projectile bases but with very rounded tips such as the hafted scraper form. Legend has it that these were blunts or ’stunners’ used to stun the animal when it was needed to capture it alive.
6. Later cultures didn’t go near places inhabited by ancient Paleo peoples. This is one that isn’t as widely circulated as some of the others. A local, very knowledgeable, old-time collector first laid this one on me when he was speaking of some very unique land features in the area. An extensive labyrinth of caves that mystified many in the area were said to be a holy place of the ancients and that more recent tribes of the past several hundred years would not venture anywhere near this location. I never was able to determine if this was based on Paleo points found at the site with no other evidence of later cultures. Or, if it was oral tradition passed down through the local generations that the tribes of the past 200 years avoided it for their own reasons.
7. Multi-notched points and otherwise unknown objects served “ceremonial” purposes. It seems that any rare find that doesn’t fit the mold of an identified type gets tagged as ‘ceremonial’. Multi-notched points, eccentrics, examples that are considerably large for the type, and many of the unknowns fall into this ‘ceremonial use’ category.
8. Arrowpoints were nocked vertically or horizontally depending on the game hunted. Arrowheads were shot with the lateral edges of the point aligned vertically when hunting deer and buffalo to allow the point to penetrate between the ribs . Arrowheads were shot with the lateral edges aligned horizontally if used to kill humans so that the arrow could enter between the horizontally stacked ribs of a human.
9. Beveled points were made so that the point would spin when shot. Explained as an ancient way to achieve a ‘rifling’ effect as one would expect with modern day ammunition, beveling was really a means of sharpening that preserved the point. Flaking on only one face of a blade edge, and then doing so on the opposite face created a fresh, sharp edge that did not greatly reduce the size of the point. This process results in the ‘twisted’ appearance of t he projectile blade.
10. Flutes on Clovis and Folsom points were made to allow the blood to drain from the kill. Deep channel flakes that facilitate hafting on Paleo points have been described as grooves to allow for the blood flow out of the wounded animal.
Many mysteries remain around the peoples of ancient America and the strange tools they left behind. We many never have all the answers and that will continue to fuel speculation. What are some of the more interesting theories you’ve heard?
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One Response to “Top 10 Arrowhead Urban Legends & Folklore”
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Anonymous
11. Aug, 2010
are those arrowheads real