Arrowheads

I was reading a brief synopsis of an article recently submitted to some professional journal of Archeology. It was online at Physorg.com, where I go to keep up with what’s happening in the wacky world of science and technology.

The author (I never write this stuff down and I have no short term memory, and I’m not online right now to look it up—I’m taking my shift in the hospital to be with my Uncle who broke his hip and is waiting for surgery. He’s 62 and has Down’s Syndrome and we don’t want him to be alone) has an interesting new theory, developed, he said, because of some research and testing he and others did. The theory involves early Americans, Neolithic and later. I don’t remember if he mentioned Europe or other places.

His theory (I’m giggling now because every time some one says “my theory” I do that Python sketch about the Brontosaurus in my head) involves the extent to which the Amerinds actually relied on chipped-stone arrowheads. Apparently he made a bunch of arrows from sticks, sharpened some and put arrow heads on others. Then he and his friends shot the arrows and discovered that the sharpened ones performed about as well as the others (which, in the case of modern Archeologists, I suspect was worthy of submission to America’s Funniest Home Videos). They determined, through careful and thorough observation and record keeping, that it took less time to make the sharp sticks that it did to make the stone tipped ones. I’m assuming all the arrows were fletched, but with these kids today, who knows?

So, based on this exhaustive study (probably a Saturday morning on campus) which determined that it took longer to make stone-tipped arrows, and that the sharpened sticks worked pretty good, he is theorizing that the Neolithic people all the way down to the Indians (oops, sorry, Native Americans) probably didn’t depend much on the arrow heads. He thinks the importance placed on stone hunting implements is over-rated and played only a minor role in the lives of the Bearing Straight Land Bridge Association. (BSLBA—check out their website).

Let’s see now . . . that would make those people way to stupid to breathe, wouldn’t it? Much less kill anything. I’m thinking this: millions of arrow heads have been found, all over the world, surviving long past the shaft and feathers because they’re made of stone. Which means they could be used again and again, but probably weren’t because arrow heads were so quick and easy to make with some practice. In fact, a friend of mine, a practical-joke-making Paleontologist, told me that most professionals now believer that they (the “primitives”) didn’t bother to make the head until they actually spotted game. Then they would squat, take the makings out of a pouch, and chip the head right there, lacing it on to a prepared shaft, and then stalk, shoot, and dress. Hopefully with more accuracy than I envision the scholars managing.

I was skeptical of this claim by my friend since he was well know to lie, steal, cheat, and rob other people’s sites. (Not really. Although he did enjoy salting sites with artifacts of his own making that the experts invariably took for the real thing). But he convinced me when he whipped out a leather patch, put it on his thigh, took a chunk of flint and used part of a deer antler to chip a nice piece off then turned the antler over to the point and carefully chipped it into a perfect arrowhead shape, all in about five minutes. And he’s a dorky, pasty, white guy who digs things up for a living. (Think of Ross Geller). I could easily imagine someone who was actually competent doing the whole thing in a minute or so, including tying it on.

I spend what time I am able out in the woods, fishing streams mostly (you try catching a stream sometimes—it’s hard work!) and hunting, Although not for many years) and even I, who doesn’t know anything about such things, have found both arrowheads and lots of little piles of stone chips, which, after my friend showed me what to look for, are easy to spot. These are places where someone stopped and made something, more or less on the fly.

I don’t remember if the academics shot their arrows into anything other than a target, but I have been bow hunting and I can tell you that an arrow head with sharp, tapering edges will do a great deal more damage than a practice arrow (which only has a sharpened point—sound familiar?). Now, I realize you might not enjoy the mental image of some nice deer or Elk getting shot, whatever the projectile, but arrows kill, for the most part, by blood-letting, (Bullets by massive trauma and systems shock). The more surface area on the edges of the arrowhead, the more veins and arteries are severed, the more it bleeds and the faster it dies. If we’re going to kill the thing, we want it done with the least amount of pain and suffering possible—contrary to popular belief. A wooden stick stuck into an animal that size is not likely to kill it at all, unless it happened to his a vital organ, which is equally unlikely. It’s the bleeding that does it, most of the time. There is a hunting term known as the Blood Trail. Bow hunters are especially familiar with it because 95% of the time they have to follow the trail for miles, waiting for the animal to lie down and die. You haven’t lived until you and your buddies are out in the middle of the night with lanterns and flashlights, trying to find spots of blood (black at night) and find your kill. I shot a buck once, with a rifle (.30-.30) from about fifteen feet (that’s another story . . .) which means I got a good shot off and the bullet went through both lungs. That sucker still managed to run about an eighth of a mile before it collapsed and every step it took left a quart of it’s life blood on the ground. Incredible.

My brother took aim at a nice buck once and when he had it in the scope he saw an old aluminum arrow sticking through it’s neck, bent, head long gone, each end visible. That arrow had been there for years. Somebody didn’t look hard enough or long enough, but the point is, these animals are hard to kill—they do not want to die. (And my brother let that one go, he figured any buck tough enough to live through that had earned his right to be left alone). Anything ancient hunters could do to facilitate feeding the family group, they would have done. They used the best technology available, just like we do now.
In summation, I have concluded that it was not the ancients who were too stupid to breathe, it is in fact, the archeologist dumb enough to come up with such a theory, mush less publish it. I have a friend (she died yesterday in fact) who has her grandfathers collection of arrowheads he found in the hills around Boise, Idaho. There are hundreds of them. Museums have thousands and thousands, private citizens have hundreds of thousands, collectively. There are places you can go in this country and walk around and you can’t not find one. They were ubiquitous. But, the expert says they were of little consequence. I guess they made them just for fun and then tossed them around for some one to find, like my friend the Paleontologist does. Those Neolithicists, fun-loving pranksters every one.