<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"><base href="x-msg://100/"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>Hi Martin</div><div><br></div><div>You wrote:</div><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div ocsi="0" fpstyle="1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="direction: ltr; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt; ">Jørgen forwarded this mail to me, as I am working on these shell points at the moment. They will be published next summer.<br>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<br>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.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br><br><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: 19px; "><span lang="EN-US" style="">(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.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Proceedings of the Society</i>. April 10th 1876: 508-516.)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: 19px; "><br><span lang="EN-US" style=""></span></div>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.</div></div></blockquote><br></div><div>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:</div><div><br></div><div>O'Day, Sharyn Jones and William F. Keegan 2001 Expedient Shell Tools from the Northern West Indies. Latin American Antiquity 12: 274-290.</div><div><br></div><div>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).</div><div><br></div><div>Best wishes</div><div><br></div><div>Clive</div><div apple-content-edited="true">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">==========================================<br>Clive Bonsall<br>Professor of Early Prehistory<br>University of Edinburgh<br>School of History, Classics and Archaeology<br>William Robertson Wing, Old Medical School<br>Teviot Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9AG<br>Tel: +44-131-650 2375<br><a href="mailto:Clive.Bonsall@ed.ac.uk">Clive.Bonsall@ed.ac.uk</a><br>http://edinburgh.academia.edu/CliveBonsall<br>==========================================</div></span></span>
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