It is a curious fact that Early Southwestern Man most often made his
tools of very finely textured stone. Perhaps this custom was induced by
the exacting, finely controlled technologies of stone flaking practiced
and the kinds of tools made. Indeed, workmanship on many projectile
points, knives, and scrapers is so well achieved that one is led to
believe that Early Man strove to express some degree of esthetic
idealism in his tools.
Demands in technology often led to the widespread trading of choice
materials. The best known of these is from the alibates quarries near
Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle. Fine quality flint from this locality
has been found at Early Man sites as far west as Arizona and as far
north as Wyoming and Montana.
Early man prepared point “blanks” by the striking of suitable primary
flakes by direct percussion from a block of stone, the core. The striker
consisted either of a hard subround hammerstone, or a cylinder-hammer of
soft stone, bone, antler, or hard wood. Flakes driven off by the former
were usually thicker at one end. Those produced in the second instance
were relatively thin throughout their length. Long flakes or “blades”
were also often used as blanks, especially in the making of long
projectile points. They could be detached from cores with either of the
above strikers, or by holding a bone or stone “punch” on an edge of a
core and striking the top of the punch with a hammerstone. This is a
form of indirect percussion. Blades were also produced by what has been
called impulsive pressure. A bone, antler, or stone-tipped crutch was
applied to an edge of a core, and pressed downwards with the chest,
driving off a blade.
Often cores were pre-shaped before the striking or pressing off of
flakes or blades by what is termed the “Levallois technique.” A block of
stone was initially trimmed on both faces into a round, oval, or
triangular shape. Either one or a series of flakes or blades were then
driven off one or both faces of the core, using any of the above
percussion or pressure instruments. A distinct advantage to the
technique was that the upper face of the detached flake or blade blanks
had already been trimmed in the process of initial preparation of the
core. This same preparation also predetermined to a large extent the
shape of blanks produced in the Levallois technique.
The processes by which appropriate blanks were turned into finished
projectile points involved several manufacturing stages and one or a
combination of flaking techniques. The techniques employed consisted of
direct or indirect percussion, using a hammerstone, cylinder-hammer, or
punch, and direct or indirect pressure, using a crutch, an animal claw
or tooth, the edge of a length of bone, antler, or stone.
The principal manufacturing stages include: 1) over-all initial shaping
by the careful thinning of both faces of the blank; 2) secondary
trimming of lateral and basal edges, including eventual fluting; and 3)
smoothing by grinding of lateral and basal edges.
As will later be seen in the descriptions, special kinds of initial
flaking, or facial thinning, are often characteristically associated
with certain Early Man points. On some, flaking may conform to
traditional patterns, while on others it may be irregular. The following
kinds of initial flake scars are distinguished:
_Irregular_: flake scars are of irregular shape, and they are in no
particular alignment to one another or the point long-axis.
_Transverse_: long, parallel flake scars are horizontal, or nearly so,
to the point long-axis; opposite flake scars end smoothly near the point
center line, appearing to form a continuous flake scar across the point
face.
_Collateral_: similar to transverse flaking, except that opposite flake
scars end abruptly near the point center line, forming in some cases a
central ridge.
_Oblique_: long, parallel flake scars are oblique or slanted in relation
to the point long-axis.