Diagnostic Flint Points

Bibliographic Data

ID2561604
AuthorsRobert Mccormick Adams (corresponding author)
Year1940
Volume6
Issue1
Pages72-75
Publication date1940-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Antiquity (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7316 • E-ISSN: 2325-5064
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/275950
OpenAlexW2323903717
LanguageEN
Citations received5

Several valuable classifications of flint points have been formulated but few of these have attempted to distinguish between those points having diagnostic value, and the numerous forms which are found rather indiscriminately over a large series of cultures and which may or may not have value as cultural determinants. Points which have been used by archaeologists as diagnostic determinants seem to be inseparably connected with distribution studies of complexes and traits. An illustration of this is the small finely chipped isosceles projectile point so diagnostic of the Middle Mississippi phase. This identical point is found in the Southwest where unfortunately it is found among several different cultures and in several different time horizons so that it does not have diagnostic value in this general area. Or again we might consider the highly diagnostic laurel leaf blade so typical of many components of the Red Ochre phase

Archaeology · Blade (archaeology) · Geography · Geometry · Isosceles triangle · Point (geometry) · Projectile point · Statistics · Value (mathematics) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · History · Mathematics · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology