Projectile weapons before the bow: metric data from the southern Andes, 30?34°S

MARSH, ERIK; CASTRO, SILVINA; YEBRA, LUCÍA; CORTEGOSO, VALERIA Y CHIAVAZZA HORACIO

Tarragona

Congreso; LITHIC TECHNOLOGY AND EVOLUTION ORAL COMMUNICATION; 2021

Universidad Autonoma de Madrid

This paper?s goal is to begin to characterize the metric variability of projectile pointsprior to the introduction of the bow in the southern Andes. To do this, we selectedpoints from contexts that are unambiguously prior to the bow, based on associationswith 1) preserved wood atlatl elements or 2) radiocarbon dates that are well priorto the introduction of the bow. We present data for 64 lithic points from the site LosMorrillos (30°S) in levels dated 4000?7500 years BP and at nine other sites (32?34°S)from levels dated 2000?7500 years BP. These points have also been analyzed morphologicallyto reduce noise by excluding points reused as knives. These data will allow usto estimate the metric range of pre-bow projectile points from secure archaeologicalcontexts (Castro et al. 2021). This will help provide a stronger comparative baseline foridentifying arrow points, which is currently done with ethnographic measurement thatsometimes di!er significantly from archaeological ones. This will also help establisha comparative baseline for the Andes, where regional variation may also be a factor invariable point sizes.