Mark your calendar…. October 27th
Join us for the 12th Annual Blackwater Draw Atlatl Competition
Check back soon for more details and the official poster.
2012 Atlatl Competition
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Category Archives: primitive technology
Clovis Eye Candy
Happy Vernal Equinox.
We’re working on some new imagery for the Clovis site. Everybody loves the points. To think that this was probably stuck in the mammoth it was found with over 12,000 years ago.
Bronze Age Technology
- The recovered portion of the Dover Boat on display.
Robin Wood is a remarkable traditional craftsman from Britain. He has recently been involved with replicating the Dover Boat, a Bronze Age ship discovered in 1992 (see the news article here). The find is about 3500 years old, placing it right at the cusp of early metal-working technology.
- The Oetzi axe
The reconstruction is half-scale but staying true to the technology, they are attempting to use replicated tools for much of the construction. Pallstaves were cast from an original and hafted both like an adze and like an axe. This isn’t speculative as there are quite a number of preserved Bronze Age examples from wet contexts in Europe.
- “Pallstave” replicas.
As with other ships and boats from the Neolithic and Bronze Age, ingenious methods were used to connect the planks and stiffen the hull. Technologically, these fall somewhere between composite dugouts and true framed ships. There are many factors in holding together a boat including lots of movement from all angles, swelling/shrinking of the planks, and the need for light weight. The solution on the Dover Boat was to stitch the entire thing together with yew “withes” and stiffen the body with heavy lathes driven through carved mortices.
It seems that a better candidate could not have been chosen to work on this project and I’m very glad to see that he is documenting it on his blog for all to see.
- Adzing a plank by eye, leaving the mortices standing to accept the lathes. (Click the photo or link below to go to Robin’s website).
From the log of the Starship Enterprise
In January of 1967, an episode of Star Trek entitled “The Galileo Seven” aired, and caught the attention of Dr. George Agogino, a past Director of the Paleo-Indian Institute at Eastern New Mexico University. In the episode, Spock and his crew crash-land on a hostile planet with “caveman” like creatures lurking around, and throwing spears at the crew. Dr. Agogino saw a morphological resemblance between the spear points used in the episode and Folsom points, so he decided to send a letter and request that the spears that were used in the television show be donated to the Blackwater Draw Museum. A few months later Robert Justman, the associate Producer of Star Trek received Agogino’s request, and was enthused to answer it.
Justman noted that the spears were based on the Folsom points that had originally been found in New Mexico in the late 1920s, but he made sure to address the “dramatic license” that was practiced by enlarging the spears to 15 feet in length. Nonetheless, Agogino was still thrilled at the possibility of having Folsom themed Star Trek memorabilia on display.
Below is a scene out of the episode featuring the spears:
Many letters went back and forth between Agogino, Justman, and NBC, mainly addressing shipping and logistics of mailing 15 foot spears, but eventually the spears made their way to Portales, New Mexico, and then to the Blackwater Draw Museum where they are still proudly on display.
Star Trek prop spears on display in the Blackwater Draw Museum.
A Surprise Find
Sometimes in archaeology things don’t always go as planned, and sometimes the past hides gems under our noses (or boots).
Last November, students working with ENMU faculty as a part of an NSF New Mexico EPSCoR grant gained experience in climate change research. The purpose of the study is to better understand the Pleistocene to Holocene transition, and to apply the results to modern climate changes. Students collected pollen, phytolith, diatom, ostracod, and stable carbon isotope samples from a variety of sites along the eastern border of New Mexico. One of the areas that was of interest lies a few hundred meters south of the main portion of Blackwater Locality #1 known as Locality X. This locality has been surveyed and excavated sporadically over the last few years, and is mainly composed of lithic debitage.
The climate study group was attempting to relocate a unit that was dug during the ENMU 2010 Field Session, which can prove to be a daunting task, even with good notes and today’s technology. The students did locate the unit, but in the process disturbed an adjacent unexcavated unit. During the screening of the disturbed dirt, a small arrowhead surfaced and revealed more information about this locality.
Much of the early work in Locality X was limited to surface collection and limited coring. This southern portion of the site has yielded Paleoindian, Archaic, and Late prehistoric components including an anomalous metate fragment on the surface, arrow and dart points, and a graver. Although we tend to focus on and highlight the Paleoindian components of the Blackwater Draw site, we always keep in mind that the occupation ranges from Clovis-age deposits through Proto-Historic and even Historic Native American settlement. The arrow points found scattered on the southern landscape of the site probably indicate hunting that occurred around the outflow channel and dunes between the ancient lake bed and the draw.
Clovis Points
Clovis points from the Clovis site. These likely all date to a few centuries around 11,000 RCYBP and most were found in association with Mammuthus columbi and a few with Bison antiquus. The Clovis site contained at least 28 mammoths that died or were killed around the pond margin and there is good evidence that six or more were killed by humans.
Points from Clovis strata at the Clovis type-site
As can be seen in this image, the raw materials were variable but high quality. Also notable are the small size of the points. Non-hunters often mistakenly think that a small point is for small prey but quite the opposite may be true. Until recently, small arrow points were used in Africa to bring down elephants, buffalo, and other large game. The object is to pierce a vital organ or artery and a wider blade needs more force to cut through hide to reach the protected organs. There was probably much more thought to the animal’s behavior and the situation of the kill and it may be no coincidence that all of the known mammoth and bison kills at the site are within the muddy pond margin.
The majority of raw materials are Edwards Plateau Chert or Alibates Agate from the Canadian River in Texas. Other materials include quartzite, likely procured in the upper reaches of the Canadian, Tecovas jasper from north Texas, silicified wood, and obsidian.
More to come…
And the evidence continues to build.
Score one, possibly a definitive one, for the pre-Clovis people. Below is an abstract from an article by Michael R. Waters et al published in the October, 2011 issue of Science that summarizes his findings concerning a projectile point lodged into a rib of a mastodon at a potential pre-Clovis site.
Abstract
The tip of a projectile point made of mastodon bone is embedded in a rib of a single disarticulated mastodon at the Manis site in the state of Washington. Radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis show that the rib is associated with the other remains and dates to 13,800 years ago. Thus, osseous projectile points, common to the Beringian Upper Paleolithic and Clovis, were made and used during pre-Clovis times in North America. The Manis site, combined with evidence of mammoth hunting at sites in Wisconsin, provides evidence that people were hunting proboscideans at least two millennia before Clovis. [Waters et al, 2011]
Here is a full reference to the Science article, as well as a link to a BBC article that discusses the findings. Additionally, I have found an NPR interview with Waters, and I will provide a link to it also.
Waters, Michael R.
2011 Pre-Clovis Mastodon Hunting 13,800 Years Ago at the Manis Site, Washington. Science 334: 351-353.
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/20/141549739/what-slew-an-ancient-mastodon-dna-tells-tale
Mastodon State Park
This weekend Mastodon State Park, a location of Pleistocene age fossil deposits, in Imperial, Missouri will be featuring “Archaeology Days”. Admission is free and activities include demonstrations on flintknapping, rock art, and clothing manufacture. Additionally, visitors will have the opportunity to use an atlatl and take a guided tour of the excavation site.
If you’re in the neighborhood or plan on being in the Imperial, Missouri area on Sept. 24-25 you should stop by and enjoy the festivities. Links to the website and a youtube video of the park can be found below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKyR5dKds_4&feature=player_embedded#!
Blackwater Draw Fall Atlatl Competition 2011
Join us at the Blackwater Draw site for the
11th Annual Fall Atlatl Competition.
Whether you are new to dart throwing or have been at it for years, everyone is invited to participate in the 2011 Atlatl Throw. Learn more from the World Atlatl Association.
- The event will be held October 22nd at the Blackwater Draw Archaeological site on New Mexico Highway 467.
- Gates open and registration to compete begins at 9:00 am.
- Practice targets open at 9:00.
- Throwing teams for men, women, and youth.
- Field round competition beginning around 10:00 am and will continue through the afternoon.
- ISAC in the afternoon.
- Casual throwing available all day as targets become free.
Atlatl and spearthrowers of all types welcome. (No stone tips please).
New Brush Shelter at Blackwater
Instruction Ramada at Blackwater Draw
Thanks to Jon, his family, and the crew from BSA Troop 411, of Clovis, New Mexico for building this excellent traditional ramada as part of Jon’s Eagle Scout Project. The goal was to provide shade for events and instruction at the site. This demonstration area was recently expanded by adding about 2 meters of fill dirt from old mine spoil. The first Blackwater Draw event that will utilize the new shelter will be the 2011 Fall Atlatl Competition on October 22nd. This is a well-deserved christening for the ramada and will serve the event and its participants well. Thanks Troop 411!
Along with the traditional shelter, the troop helped us stabilize an eroding slope near the South Bank Interpretive Center by adding check-ties. The area has been used as an unofficial trail and was beginning to show some wear from foot-traffic and rain. Now that the heat has subsided, we hope to begin re-vegetating this area before the winter.
A special thanks goes out to Ward Beers for engineering and masterminding much of the ramada project. Now he’ll have a nice place to sling his yucca hammock during the Atlatl competition.
Thanks to BSA Troop 411: Jonathan Strand, Tyler Saucier, Brannon Credle, Jeremiah Baker, Stetson Rains, Matthew Rains, Daniel Pfauth, and Travis Nelson.
Thanks to the adults and siblings who helped with the projects: Bryan Strand, Diane Strand, Melissa Perkins, Carrie Nelson, Shania Nelson, Clay Rains, Cesco Pfauth, and Tripp Johnson.
Thanks to George Crawford, site archaeologist, Bridgette Crawford, and Stacey Bennett, support from the Blackwater Draw site.
