Code: 2729
Description: A good-sized mottled brown flint point with a short slightly expanded stem and plano-convex in cross-section. A nice example with a dull patina.
Size: 80 mm/3.1 ins. in length
Culture: American Indian
Date: Archaic, c. 8000-4500 years B.P.
Provenance: Ex F.S. Clark Collection, Woking, Surrey.
Background: Fred Sydney Clark (1923-2016) ran the Old Curiosity Shoppe, The Quadrant, Onslow Street, Guildford, Surrey, in the 1970’s-1980’s selling a range of collectables. A passionate collector and field-walker, he built up a fine collection of antiquities, notable for British prehistoric items, a significant number of which he obtained through trade with Dr. H.A. Fawcett. Like Fawcett, he was meticulous in documenting his collection, even the most humble tools were catalogued and fully labelled with locality, accession number and his characteristic monogram.
Points like this would have been used to tip spears and darts thrown using atlatls (spear throwers). In North America, the best evidence suggests that bows and arrows were not introduced until about 1400 years B.P.