A North American Indian Archaic flint side notched point

A North American Indian Archaic flint side notched point

Code: 2725

SOLD

Description: A mottled grey flint side-notched point with straight base and sub-triangular in form. A nice example of the type.

Size: 37 mm/1.4 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.