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Attributes and the Discovery of Projectile Point Types: With Data from the Columbia-Fraser Region*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017
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.
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- Copyright
- Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1954
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.
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