Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T23:10:49.316Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Attributes and the Discovery of Projectile Point Types: With Data from the Columbia-Fraser Region*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Marian W. Smith
Marian W. Smith*
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Classification of pottery types has apparently already reached a satisfactory degree of descriptive accuracy. Although problems remain, numerous site comparisons and important cultural connections have been based upon pottery. Classification of stone artifacts is not in so happy a state. Wheat has also recently called attention to this fact (1953, p. 196): “If cultures predominantly lithic in complexion are to be correlated satisfactorily with each other … we must pay the same attention to artifacts of stone, bone, shell, etc., that has yielded such valuable results in the study of pottery.” Considerable difficulties are inherent in the classification of stone implements but close inspection shows that these are further increased by a terminology which occasionally serves as much to confuse the picture as to clarify it.

Such phrases as “leaf-shaped” or “triangular” blades are common in archaeological literature. Yet the descriptive accuracy of these terms rests upon a meaningful and generally accepted contrast between leaf-shaped and triangular which is not substantiated by the inquiry into their use as presented below.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , July 1954 , pp. 15 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1954

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The original of this paper was presented at the XXXth International Congress of Americanists held at Cambridge, England, in September 1952. I should like to express here my appreciation to D. G. Denoon for having the drawings made for me and to Anne Deakins for typing the manuscript for publication.

References

BORDEN, CHARLES E. 1950. Preliminary Report on Archaeological Investigations in the Fraser Delta Region. Anthropology in British Columbia, No. 1, pp. 13–27.Google Scholar
BORDEN, CHARLES E. 1953. Results of Archaeological Investigations in Central British Columbia. Anthropology in British Columbia, No. 3, pp. 31–43.Google Scholar
COLLIER, DONALD, HUDSON, ALFRED and FORD, ARLO 1942. Archaeology of the Upper Columbia Region. University of Washington Publications in Anthropology, Vol. 9, No. 1.Google Scholar
DAUGHERTY, RICHARD D. 1952. Archaeological Investigations in O’Sullivan Reservoir, Grant County, Washington. American Antiquity, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 374–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DRUCKER, PHILIP 1943. Archaeological Survey on the Northern Northwest Coast. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin, No. 133, Anthropological Papers, No. 20. Washington.Google Scholar
GARTH, THOMAS R. 1952. The Middle Columbia Cremation Complex. American Antiquity, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 40–56. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
GIFFORD, E. W. and SCHENCK, W. E. 1926. Archaeology of the Southern San Joaquin Valley, California. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 23, No. 1. Berkeley.Google Scholar
HEIZER, ROBERT F., (ed.) 1950. A Manual of Archaeological Field Methods. Revised Edition. The National Press, Millbrae, California.Google Scholar
KING, ARDEN R. 1950. Cattle Point: a Stratified Site in the Southern Northwest Coast Region. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, No. 7. Menasha.Google Scholar
KRIEGER, ALEX D. 1944. The Typological Concept. American Antiquity, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 271–88. Menasha.Google Scholar
DE LAGUNA, FREDERICA 1947. The Prehistory of Northern North America as seen from the Yukon. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, No. 3. Menasha.Google Scholar
JOHN E., MILLS and OSBORNE, CAROLYN 1952. Material Culture of an Upper Coulee Rockshelter. American Antiquity, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 352–9. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
OSBORNE, DOUGLAS, CRABTREE, ROBERT and BRYAN, ALAN 1952. Archaeological Investigations in the Chief Joseph Reservoir. American Antiquity, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 360–73. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
ROUSE, IRVING 1939. Prehistory in Haiti: a study in method. Yale University Publications in Anthropology, No. 21. New Haven.Google Scholar
SMITH, MARIAN W. 1950. Archaeology of the Columbia-Frazer Region. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, No. 6. Menasha.Google Scholar
SPAULDING, ALBERT C. 1953. Statistical Techniques for the Discovery of Artifact Types. American Antiquity, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 30543. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
STRONG, WM. DUNCAN 1935. An Introduction to Nebraska Archaeology. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 93. Washington.Google Scholar
STRONG, WM. DUNCAN, SCHENCK, W. E. and STEWARD, JULIAN 1930. Archaeology of the Dalles-Deschutes Region. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and. Ethnology, Vol. 29, No. 1. Berkeley.Google Scholar
TAYLOR, WALTER W. 1948. A Study of Archaeology. Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association, No. 69. Menasha.Google Scholar
WHEAT, JOE BEN 1953. An Archeological Survey of the Addicks Dam Basin, Southeast Texas. River Basin Surveys Papers, No. 4, Pt. 1, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin, No. 154, pp. 143–252. Washington.Google Scholar
WILSON, THOMAS 1898. Arrowpoints, Spearheads, and Knives of Prehistoric Times. United States National Museum Report for 1897, Pt. 1, pp. 747–988. Washington.Google Scholar