Minnesota Arrowhead

[tchaire]

Hi guys--

Don't post many of my finds but Cannonman's home-made arrowhead reminded me of one I found a couple of years back....My personal favorite. About an inch long and I believe made of Knife River flint. I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but someone told me the long smooth knap on the back of it was done on purpose to act as a channel for the blood to flow from the animal it struck. Any truth to this?

[deepsix47]

Very nice!!!!
Deepsix

[Atlantis0077]

Morning,

That is a nice little point indeed. As for the channel blood groove thing....I am sure you can get a variety of opinions on this, but I would say its unlikely. If you look at pictures of how the Indians affixed many of their points onto shafts, normally there is only a small portion of the tip of the point actually showing....most of what would be a blood groove would be covered with sinew, bitumen or whatever they were using to keep the arrowhead from falling off with. We have blood grooves made into modern knives, but the entire blade on those can be thrust into a person or animal and the blood groove could serve a valuable function.

Its all conjecture, not too many people around from 3,000 years ago to say why or how they did what. All a best guess on scraps of evidence we have now and by looking at what works and what wont. Knaps and flutes on many points were done more for ease of hafting than for any other reason I would think.

Happy Hunting,

Atlantis

[Cannonman17]

WOW! Cool looking point and it most certainly does look like knife river calchedony (i'm sure I didn't spell that right) I have only been lucky enough to find one artifact made from that material and it was not a pretty piece- you being in Minnesota puts you quite a bit closer to the source though- lucky duck. I would also say that any divit, flute, channel, flake, or what ever we call it on the flat side is more than likely a coincidence in the making of the point and not an intentional "blood letter". It has been argued that the flutes on some paleo points which are much larger may have been a type of blood letter but it is also believed that the flutes were simply there to facilitate hafting. I personaly believe that the primary purpose was to facilitate hafting and any benefit the flute may have served as a blood letter was probably by chance. If we look at the form and function of a point the size you have here we can safely assume that it was a true arrowhead- potentialy it could have served as a atl-atl point also but for sake of conversation we'll stick with the former. In the case of a true arrowhead a blood letting channel in the surface of a point would be to small to make any appreciable difference. In a larger point where the primary function would have been to "stab" or thrust (like on a bayonet) the point into the intended target a blood letting channel may have been useful. Anyways- very nice looking point there! I always wanted to get my hands on some of that stuff and try making a point or two out of it.

[Neanderthal]

The "flat" spot on one side is very common with small arrow points. Unlike some other large tools being made from reducing a cobble, small arrow points are typically made from spalls they knock off. These spalls are already very thin and usually don't require further thinning, so the only thing that needs to be done really is to flake them into desired shape. So, there is no need to flake to the center in reduction and it leaves that flat spot from the ventral side of the spall. Look at your arrowheads and you'll notice this is a common trait.

I wrote a small graphic representation a while back called "Flint Reduction Primer" that may help with some of the terminology, etc. Here is a link to it - http://www.arrowheads1.com/flaking/primer.htm

Matt

[tchaire]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm posting another picture just to show you how the flute runs...Not that I disagree with your observations. Cannonman if I ever find an unworked piece of Knife River I'll send it to you. I do come by flakes, but I would guess they are too small to work with. Maybe I'll post some of my other Knife River finds.

T.