Meserve or Dalton?

[greywolf22]

This is a broken Meserve or Dalton that was found near Hearne TX. I think a Meserve is nothing but a worked down Dalton, others say it is a point related to the Dalton. What do you think?


This is another point that was papered as a Meserve but to me looks like a worked down Dalton.

[Neanderthal]

It's debatable as to whether Meserve is a valid type.  I myself am not convinced that it is.  One the selling traits that is pushed on the Meserve is the bevel, and style of doing it.  However, beveling is simply the result of resharpening a piece and does not make a good qualifier.  In other words, you can't name a type just from it being resharpened.  There are many points that are called Meserve (Golondrina, Dalton and many other early Archaic types). 
    It's one of those early types that may fall by the wayside quick when people start actually trying to find identifiers for it.  Just like Sandia (Bajada), Bolen bevel and many more.

[greywolf22]

We need to start with the authenticators and get them on the same page.I agree with you that alternate bevel should not be the definitive recourse in identification.

[Pullenrock]

mmMM!could be either or both?..

[greywolf22]

Yes as it satnds today it could be both but is one.

[Paleolution]

I think they are the same in form, but out west they call them Meserve.  We don't have any Daltons in CO, but we do have their identical twin Meserve!  Oh the technicalities...

[Arborist]

My mentor, Pete McKenzie, who had collected arrowheads for over 60 years mostly in Texas had always believed that a Meserve was an early archaic or paleo point usually a Plainview, Pedernales or Dalton that was resharpened by a later archaic group and wasn't necessarily a type unto itself.  The empirical evidence of this as that the base is always architypical of one of the other types and the blade is always concave indicating it had could have been reworked.  It is also very widely distributed showing that it was either traded or it was a cultural habit of recycling what was available in a local area.  I can imagine that many types of classic paleo or early archaic points have been reused over and over again over many generations. I have often wondered if your typical classical point such as a Pedernales, Castroville, Montell, etc. was made by one single group of craftsmen and traded far and wide or if one particular craftsman made points for the whole tribe or if he trained younger apprentices who carried on the tradition through several generations in many locations.  One my favorite pieces I have found is a scraper that is twisted and when I showed it to Pete he played with it for a minute and then said it was made for a left handed person.  Sure enough the only way you can comfortably hold it in your hand without cutting yourself is by holding it in your left hand. I was only a teenager then and it was real WOW moment for me when I realized there were lefthanded Indians too! I also wonder how many arrowheads were lost by some young boy who snuck into his father's stuff and took it without asking and was found in perfect condition hundreds or thousands of years later by a collector.  Maybe someone will find my long lost crescent wrench someday.  :woohoo: