The embedded photo was posted in the Arrowheads subreddit with the question "why so small?"
The short answer is "because it is a true arrowhead." Here are a couple comments from a good discussion thread:
"That’s a true arrowhead. Most of the technology used was atlatl and the atlatl points are very large compared to arrowheads. Once the bow was invented, they could hunt game from further away and with more penetrating power using smaller points. These little points can still kill a deer. An atlatl dart point is like a .45, versus an arrowhead which is more like the stopping power of a 9mm.""In archaeology we call them PPK'S (Projectile Points/Knives) because bow and arrows didn't appear in the Americas until around 600 years ago. The larger stuff that people call "arrowheads" are actually spear or lance points, atlatl points, or knives. You would be surprised by how many arrowhead shaped items are actually just knife blades.""General rule about artifacts, Oldest hunting points were the Spear and Knife designed for Mega-Fauna in Paleo Era requiring LARGE ROBUST POINTS. Archaic are large to medium sized designed for new technology of the Atlatl and the smaller available game, deer elk, bear, beaver, antelope, Pronghorn Sheep, etc. The "bird points" are mostly modern Woodland Era and made more effective due to the near extinction of the main food source for the lower 48, the American Bison, Mule Deer, Elk and White Tails. Prairie Chickens, Grouse, Ducks, Geese, Rabbits, etc became the alternative out of pure necessity. Feed an entire village with Bison VS Small game, what could go wrong."
Thanks for posting. All true. Found a few points in my years surveying, from across millennia. I think I first learned about this stuff in an anthropology class back in the 70s--so had a half-assed idea what I was looking at. Not too long ago, I also read something about points made for warfare, possibly only relevant to my region of California. Specifically in reference to an arrow-weight basalt point found in the Cascade foothills. Not exactly blunt, but also not the sort of razor sharp hunting point associated with an atlatl or bow. I take this as consistent with my impression that inter-tribal warfare, a constant, tended toward the ritualistic, being a more territorial than homicidal exercise.
ReplyDeleteOutside the United States and I have no idea how big that coin is.
ReplyDeleteSorry, let me correct that ...
"I live outside the United States of America, and have no idea of the size of that coin.
A U.S. dime's size is defined by its diameter of \(17.91\) mm (\(0.705\) inches) and thickness of \(1.35\) mm (\(0.053\) inches). This makes it the smallest in diameter and thinnest of all U.S. coins currently minted for circulation.
DeleteThe smallest circulated coin in history was the Lydian Lion coin of around 650 BC. They were gold-silver alloy, and were about a half-inch in diameter, like a chewable vitamin-C tablet. The biggest is the Canadian Maple Leaf one million (Canadian) dollar coin (made in 2007), almost 20 inches in diameter and a little over an inch thick. It would be foolish to spend it at face value. That much gold is worth almost 20,000,000 Canadian dollars today. There are ancient giant stone coins on the Island of Yap in Micronesia, and in Central and South America, but they were not circulated except socially, by changes in ownership. Some are twelve feet across.
ReplyDeleteIn the Circus World trilogy of books by Barry Longyear (City of Baraboo, Circus World, Elephant Song) a circus spaceship (The City of Baraboo) is sabotaged by a rival circus company and crashes* on an uncharted planet; the result is a successful civilization of circus people and their descendants. The basic unit of exchange is the movill. Copper is very scarce on the planet. Coins are the copper beebees from Mr. Movill's shooting gallery booth. Very small, very precious.
*The saucer section of the Enterprise D crashing in forested mountains, in Star Trek: Generations (Star Trek VII) eerily closely matched my imagination of the crash of The City of Baraboo but without the terrified circus animals and their sounds.
The wooden parts (spear shafts, bows, arrows) do not survive well in the archeological record. It is the arrowheads that we find because stone endures. Bogs and marshy areas are relatively gentle on the wooden pieces (presumably because of the oxygen-poor environment while submersed). Here is a recent video that discusses the wooden bits.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftZuAzua5Ak