Miniature projectile points in the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene

NORA FLEGENHEIMER; NATALIA MAZZIA; CELESTE WEITZEL

Burgos, Atapuerca

Congreso; XVII Congreso Mundial de UISPP; 2014

Fundación Atapuerca

In spite of their reduced size, miniatures always call for special attention in archaeological contexts. Miniature projectile points have been described both in North and South American early peopling literature and are explained as toys, practice pieces or ceremonial objects. In the southern cone they were part of the tool repertoire corresponding to an early technology which lasted few millenniums spanning the Pleistocene /Holocene transition. In this presentation, the focus is on the significance of miniature points found at Cerro El Sombrero Cima (Buenos Aires province, Argentina), an early site in the Argentine pampas. Information from both objects and space has led to propose that the hilltop was a look-out with control of the surroundings and a place chosen for refurbishing weapons and discarding tools broken elsewhere. Small projectile points are represented by six specimens, five are fishtail projectile points (FTPP) and the sixth is a non described stemmed type, here referred to as ESP. They are found both during surface collection and excavation associated to the full sized points recovered at the site. All miniature points are complete specimens which is an exceptional trait in the assemblage mostly composed of broken tools. Raw material employed to manufacture these miniature points is the same used for the full sized specimens. Also, all miniatures have a low labor investment, some show minimum retouch on the blades while others were only marginally shaped. No attention has been paid to represent the three dimensionalaspect of these objects. This simple manufacture has been effective in producing points which exhibit an outline clearly recognized as the type represented. Yet, technical traits of full sized points show a variable complexity and on occasions include complete bifacial reduction and fluting. Thus these small points are clearly different from their full sized counterparts in technology. Also, life history of miniatures and full sized points discarded at the site are different, while the former possibly were made at the same place where they were used and discarded, the full sized points were used elsewhere. Also fatty acids and sterols analyses have revealed contrasting results for both groups of artifacts. Miniature points in use among Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene hunter gatherer societies are an interesting case to reflect about people materializing abstractions, encoding visual communication, and developing special practices related to particular places. Miniaturizing reduces detail and demands selection. It is our proposal that in these miniatures the outline has been selected as the significant trait probably encoding social meanings. We propose that in this particular case, design not technique was the most significant trait represented. Finally, the role of these miniatures among early pampean hunter gatherers will be addressed.