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Unnotched Triangular Points on Village Sites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

William Engelbrecht
William Engelbrecht*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York Buffalo State, Buffalo, NY 14222 ([email protected])
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Abstract

Unnotched triangular arrowpoínts and point fragments are sometimes found in large numbers on village sites in the Midwest and East. The possible reason or reasons for this are rarely considered. These points were used for both warfare and hunting. An attack on a village with a volley of arrows provides the most obvious explanation for large numbers of points and point fragments. Alternatively, using arrowpoints that detached within their target prey would have resulted in points and point fragments being brought back to a village in meat. These possibilities are considered in explaining the large number of points from an iroquoian village site in western New York.

Resumen

Resumen

En pueblos del medio oeste y del este de los Estados Unidos se han encontrado con frecuencia un número elevado de puntas de flechas triangulares sin muesca o fragmentos de ellas, aunque raramente se ha considerado la razón de su presencia en los yacimientos. Estas puntas se empleaban tanto para la guerra como para la caza. Una razón obvia sería un ataque contra un pueblo mediante una lluvia de flechas, lo que explicaría el número y la condición fragmentaria de muchas de las puntas. Otra posible explicación sería que estas puntas de flecha se desprenderían de la carne de la presa de caza una vez transportada al pueblo. Este ensayo analiza ambas posibilidades para explicar la presencia de las numerosas puntas encontradas en un pueblo iroqués localizado en el oeste del estado de Nueva York.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 79 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 353 - 367
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2014

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