Red tipped points

[PaleoSnow]

I have found so many “red tipped” points over the years it amazes me! Was this done intentionally or say, as a show of skill or artistic abilities? I even have some or a couple at least that are of the Gary type that will have red tips on all four corners. Tip, base and shoulders. Most of these i have are all brown. Im sure sometimes it happened as coincidence and maybe not on purpose, but red tipped on every side….🤷🏻♂️ What are yalls thoughts and opinions on these artifacts, because i know im not the only one finding them! Thanks guys!

[painshill]

There was discussion about this somewhere on the forum a number of years ago. I'm in the camp that (based on the sheer number of examples I've seen) it was intentional. It's often seen in materials where the colour change to red was the result of heat treatment. I'm not convinced that 'reds' can be predictively or reliably created 'at-will' in specific areas of a chunk of material, a blank, preform, or point but, if and when it happens (or was naturally present in the material) some selective orientation of the material could assist in placing it at the tip of a point.

I like to think that it has a 'blood' symboism/significance, but that's an even more speculative leap of faith.

[PaleoSnow]

I honestly didnt think of the heat treatment aspect of it. Im not real familiar with that process except what little i have read here and there. But i kind of feel the same, as in a symbolism of blood! Thanks for the insight! Ill look into that possibility for sure.

[clovisoid]

A large number of banded slate bird stones are made so that the bands form an eye on one or both sides. Not easy to do, but if your work with enough slate that you recognize when it's possible to do. What likely started as a coincidence became intentional.

I tend to agree with red tips. A proficient knapper can make the tip where they want if they are willing to sacrifice length or width. And and some materials like Citronelle gravel can be a bit predictable with color change when heating thin pieces, so they might have been able to control it more in certain materials. (It might have been a bit of a sacrifice in tool quality if the material overheated or was damaged.)

[PaleoSnow]

Good points! I also have alot of artifacts with so called “bullseyes” in them. Ive also wondered the same about them. But id assume once the knapping process started they’d likely look for these unique features or the raw materials…..bands, bullseyes, quartz veins, certain colors, ect and try to incorporate these features into their tool or artifact. Similar to what we may do when doing woodcraft id compare it to. If theres a unique feature in a piece of wood or material we are working with we try and work around it to incorporate it into our product. They were certainly artistic and some were much more than others im sure, and a degree of skill would have come into play as well
when trying to include these features. But i always like to find the bullseyes as well as “blood tipped” artifacts! Just an added bonus!

[Garguy]

I have hundreds of,archaic and woodland points with red tips and bases . Heat treating a little spall turns it red on the outside. Making a point from that and retaining as much length as possible often results in red tip and base . No doubt they liked the look.

[tomclark]

Ahh best I can do for now lol

[PaleoSnow]

Very nice examples! Id have to do a lot of looking and digging i think to find some examples of my own. Although i do have one i found lately on the bar that hasnt made it to the safe yet…..here it comes now. I thought it was a cool piece

[PaleoSnow]

TomC, bottom set of pictures, top one on right…..what would you type that material as?? Ive been told, from what i can see from your picture, that it is Edwards Plateau 🤷🏻♂️ Or possibly Fort Payne, second guess. Ive got a Scottsbluff from what appears to be same material. Its been papered as Edwards.

Love the bulls too! Unique design in it!

[LongStride]

When we were kids We thought they were dipped in poison staining the tip , now after learning knapping and heat treating chert, we now know the chert colors change , figure the red tip was intentional as so many have been found with red tips , the knapper worked it out so the tip would be red

[PaleoSnow]

Litttle Bullseye

[PaleoSnow]

Ok so i dug out a couple cases…. Nothing special but a couple examples since i did bring it up.

[Garguy]

Stinger

[PaleoSnow]

Wow! That is killer! Needle tip! Very nice

[south fork]

That's a beauty

[TexasRanchLady]

My petrified wood point with red tip and base. Interesting subject. Thanks to the OP for posting. 😁

[Stansbery]

Strictly a Swag, but heat treating would primarily redden the external surface of the core raw material. When a blade is struck off to be fashioned into a point, the proximal (tip) end would be closest to the surface, and most of the red then removed from the rest of the point by thinning.

[painshill]

Differential change in colouration of lithics from heat treatment isn't a surface effect. If it happens (some materials don't change at all), it happens throughout the body of the material in areas where there are particular trace chemical impurities in the mineralogy... often in blotches, bands or swirls.

[Stansbery]

I was basing my guess on lots of FCR I've observed that was reddened only in a thin surface layer. Flint must behave differently.

[Garguy]

Painshill, you are correct assuming the material is heated consistently all the way through. In many cases, the outside got treated but not so much the center of the stone resulting in red outside that mostly flaked away.

[Ron Kelley]

I always try to learn from the ancient ones. Here are just a few of my own modern reds. Polychrome Jasper, Nethers Chert, Brazilian Agate, and Agatized Coral. All four were heat-treated. The coral has a red cutting edge rather than a red tip. I have knapped many more with red tips.

[painshill]

Very nice, Ron!

[PaleoSnow]

Wow those are very nice! Good work on them. I especially like the bands in the top two materials. All great material and workmanship though for sure.

[SGT.Digger]

I would like to suggest that having red or white tips in the case of points I find in Tennessee, were identifying marks , such as tribal affiliation or a makers mark. Examples being that you could tell which tribe it was that attacked just by 👀 looking at the arrows, with fletching and design of shafts ect. Also could be some spiritual reasons or hunting luck .