What's the Point: The Transition from Dart to Bow in the Eastern Plains

Abstract

Despite many years of research by professional and avocational archaeologists, many questions still surround the transition between the atlatl and dart and bow and arrow in North America. This paper documents the cadence and nature of this change in the cultural and environmental context of northeastern Kansas. I use David Hurst Thomas (1978) and Michael Shott's (1997) formulas to metrically classify points from 10 sites, grouping these into three temporal periods and compare the use of technologies within and across these time scales. This indicates the two technologies co-occurred during the entire transitional period.