Artifact conversion theories

[Bullheadtee]

They actually hunt deer with slingshots they fire arrows from them they are surprisingly effective !!!!

[LucasBMylks]

Great post Ant.

I read a paper a couple of years ago ( I have looked in my bookmarks but sadly cant find the paper) that proposed all typology was transient in the sense that each artefact we find is only in that given shape/style `when` we find it. This discussion was not aimed at N.A. cultures per se but to the early paleolithic.
The idea being that each piece was continually worked to accommodate the task that was required from it.
Not saying I agree or disagree but it does have some merit in the expediency of creating a tool quickly.
So imagine every artefact we have in our collections are Unfinished! Or till they get to a tiny bird point or microlith I suppose.........

I found another paper today on google that i think covers the same theory.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2740573?seq=1

[CMD]

Yeah,what you are talking about is the “usage life” of a tool. Tools cycle through a life that sees them serve a different task at different stages of their usage life. When a tool no longer serves the use for which it was originally created, it will be “salvaged” as a different tool, and enter a different stage of its “usage life”.

[CMD]

Here is another way in which making assumptions, even seemingly very reasonable, and expected, assumptions, can lead to error in understanding some tools. For instance Wading River “points”, used from Late Archaic through at least Middle Woodland times in southern New England, is perhaps the most common point type found in that region. I created a page for the type here:

https://forums.arrowheads.com/forum/...4-wading-river

Always assumed they were small projectiles. But, a usage wear analysis would have revealed that most of these “small stem points”(an earlier generic name still used by many older collectors) were in fact never used as projectiles at all, but rather, were tools used in scoring, cutting, graving, and boring operations. As described by Jeff Boudreau in his essay “Rethinking Small Stem Points”:

https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewconte...5&context=bmas

[Cecilia]

Sending you pm.

[clambellies]

I've found a few 'hafted' scrapers that most certainly were once projectile points until they were broken. My question is, after the break, were they re-hafted onto another handle for use or was the forshaft or the spear itself shortened for use with the scraper? If the projectile point was still secure in it's original haft would they remove it to re-mount?

[tomclark]

Knife. saw. drill? All same time. I have no doubt this guy would make a hafted scraper next!