[Bonetools] from bone tool mailing list

[Clive Bonsall]

Hi Martin

You wrote:

> Jørgen forwarded this mail to me, as I am working on these shell points at the moment. They will be published next summer.
> I'm enclosing a small picture of one of the points as it was discovered and a suggestion as to the hafting method based on what we found. The arrows are c14 dated to  c. 1800BC
> As far as I can see, the closest technical parallel is the flint arrow from Fyvie, Aberdeen. I haven't been able to track down this arrow-I tried the Aberdeen and Marischal museums and I would really love to find out if there were any new dates on it. 
> 
> (Anderson, J. 1876. Notice of a Flint Arrowhead in the Shaft, Found in a Moss at Fyvie, Aberdeenshire, with Notes in Illustration of the Manufacture of Arrow Shafts with Flint Tools. Proceedings of the Society. April 10th 1876: 508-516.) 
> 
> I've also tried to find a parallel in the Danish midden literature without any success. I have come across pre and post contact example from the American NW coast and so on, but I was mostly concerned with finding any prehistoric examples. At this stage I'm reasonably confident that I haven't missed any glaring examples but would greatly appreciate any info you might have.

The only shell projectile points I've come across in the archaeological/ethnographic literature were made from the columellae of gastropod shells … very different from the piece in your photo. I've attached a photo of such items, which I think came from:

O'Day, Sharyn Jones and William F. Keegan 2001 Expedient Shell Tools from the Northern West Indies. Latin American Antiquity 12: 274-290.

Looking at your photo makes me wonder if it is an arrowhead. Freshwater mussel shells tend to be very fragile/brittle, and I wouldn't have thought they would have been a sensible choice for arrowheads … unless for non-utilitarian (i.e. display) purposes. On the other hand, mussel shells were used by North American native peoples for making a variety of tools (scrapers, knives) and ornaments (see: Hilary Stewart [1973] Artifacts of the Northwest Coast Indians. Saanichton, B.C.: Hancock House).

Best wishes

Clive
==========================================
Clive Bonsall
Professor of Early Prehistory
University of Edinburgh
School of History, Classics and Archaeology
William Robertson Wing, Old Medical School
Teviot Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9AG
Tel: +44-131-650 2375
Clive.Bonsall at ed.ac.uk
http://edinburgh.academia.edu/CliveBonsall
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