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Rethinking Stone Drill Manufacture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2023

William Engelbrecht Open the ORCID record for William Engelbrecht [Opens in a new window]
William Engelbrecht*
Affiliation:
William Engelbrecht, Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, SUNY Buffalo State, Buffalo, NY, USA
*
Corresponding author: William Engelbrecht, email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Drills and projectile points from a site often share a similar shaped base, and it is typically assumed that these drills are reworked hafted points. Measurements of triangular-shaped drills and triangular arrow points from an Iroquoian site indicate that, on average, these drills had narrower bases and were thicker than points. Additionally, most preserved point foreshafts from the western United States are too short if used as a simple drill shaft, and most dart and arrow shafts are too long to serve as convenient drill shafts if used with a strap or bow drill. These data call into question the assumption that drills were reworked hafted points at Iroquoian and possibly other sites.

Résumé

Résumé

Les perçoirs et pointes de projectiles provenant de sites archéologiques ont souvent des extrémités proximales semblables; il est donc fréquemment supposé que les perçoirs sont en fait des pointes emmanchées et retouchées. Les mesures de perçoirs et de pointes de projectiles triangulaires provenant d'un site iroquoien indiquent que les perçoirs étaient plus épais que les pointes. Puisque la transformation de pointes en perçoirs implique un processus de réduction de la matière, il apparaît alors peu probable que ces perçoirs soient des pointes transformées. De plus, la plupart des préhampes de projectiles qui se sont préservées sont trop courtes pour permettre leur utilisation comme préhampes de perçoirs, et la plupart des hampes de lances ou de flèches sont trop longues pour servir adéquatement de hampes de perçoirs, lorsque utilisés avec une courroie ou un archet. Ces constats remettent en question la croyance que les perçoirs étaient des pointes emmanchées et retouchées, tant sur les sites Iroquoiens qu'ailleurs.

Keywords

stone drillsIroquoian lithicsFrison Effecttool use lifelithic technological organizationperçoirslithique iroquoienEffet Frisondurée de vieorganisation technologique lithic
Type
Report
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 1 , January 2023 , pp. 99 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for American Archaeology

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