Posted on 12/29/2005 12:59:11 PM PST by Red Badger
About 3,000 years ago, a group of hunters perched on a ridge near what is now New Haven Harbor in Connecticut and fashioned quartz into projectile points.
The points were likely intended to form the lethal end of an atlatl, or spear-thrower, dart.
A skillful stalker could wield the weapon, which predated the bow and arrow, with enough force and accuracy to send a dart into a deer, turkey, or other small prey.
Those ancient hunter-gatherers have since vanished, but the quartz artifacts survive on the ridge, known as West Rock.
Michael J. Rogers, associate professor of anthropology at Southern Connecticut State University and his student, Nancy Parsons, have found almost 5,000 stone artifacts at the site, including several unfinished points and at least one unbroken dart point.
The discovery reveals the importance of stone ridges to the hunter-gatherers of 3,000 to 4,000 years ago and adds details to the sparse knowledge of the Late Archaic period of North America.
The find also hints that dozens or hundreds of similar sites probably lie inaccessible under parking lots and buildings across the Northeast United States.
Human Hands
Rogers and his students found the site after first consulting Cosimo Sgarlata, now a graduate student at the City University of New York, who had discovered other archaeological sites in the West Rock area.
"West Rock was of central importance," Sgarlata said. "By the Late Archaic, people had become more specialized, and the population grew, so they wanted to exploit all resources of the environment."
The till topping the ridge is a jumble of clay, sand, silt, rocks, and boulders. While walking a path, Rogers and Parsons spotted a few small pieces of quartz that had been shaped by human hands—and their excavation began.
Parsons has now cataloged and recorded the location and type of every stone uncovered at the site. Since last fall, Parsons and assistants have excavated to a depth of about 1.5 feet (46 centimeters) through countless shallow scrapings.
The team filters soil from the site to find small flakes of stone.
"At first we found a few dozen artifacts. Most were quartz debitage," Parsons said, referring to stone fragments shed during tool making.
Continued excavation revealed thousands of quartz fragments and a prize quartzite projectile point in pristine condition.
The features of the artifacts and the soil depth at which they were found suggest their age, as ancient peoples in the Northeast produced points with distinctive shapes at different times.
The West Rock points resemble a quartz type common in southern New England known as "Squibnocket triangles," although more intact points are needed to confirm the style. They are known to date from 4,800 to 3,600 years ago.
Rogers says the point makers were probably hunter-gatherers, perhaps living in a seasonal hunting camp.
Imperfect Points
"Quartz was probably not their first choice" for making stone points, he said. Although very hard, quartz cracks unpredictably and is difficult to work. The hunter-gathers probably selected fist-sized lumps of quartz and broke them into two parts. The ancient craftspeople then used rocks to shape the quartz, Rogers says.
Once the quartz gained a sufficiently triangular shape, pieces of wood or antler were then pressed against the edges to flake off small pieces to shape the final product.
Parsons says she wondered why the site contained so many imperfect points. The answer is probably that the "good" points were used for hunting, while less-than-perfect pieces were discarded, she says.
State of Connecticut archeologist Nicholas Bellantoni, of the University of Connecticut, says similar sites probably dot Connecticut. Settlement sites would be close to water and well-drained land—the same features that led European settlers to found their cities at these locations.
Hewhaven? the 1st Colt plant?
Still is.
Popular place for college kids to drink and make out.
But do they have weapons?.......
Got to LOVE the ATLATL!!!!
The name is so cool...
If I were John Browning naming a new futuristic gun, what could surpass atlatl?
"This'll ATL your ass!!!"
Coltstone 45 BC........
Those things are crazy. It's a club with a notched end for the dart to be placed in. You swing the club overhead and ZAP! The dart goes a-flyin'.
Yes, living their lives as Natives Americans have since time immemorial.
Fishing, hunting, gathering, high-stakes bingo, selling cigarettes on the internet...
The gun so nice they named it twice!...........(that ought to piss off NYC'ers).........
Kinda like NYC'ers in the summer.........
Colt = Hartford. New Haven = Winchester. Bridgeport = Remington.
Cobble stones don't "break" right......
I stumbled upon one of these sites in the mojave desert and found a hand axe that had been given up on.
Chipped a couple of pieces my self and used them as knives, razor sharp but brittle edges.
Used to be North Haven = Marlin
I'd really like to hear a Ted Kennedy speech denouncing private atlatl ownership. That would just be too funny.
Atlatl, atlatl, atlatl.
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