INTRODUCTION TO LITHIC HISTORY
1. Recent discoveries and discussions by Archaeologists and Paleontologists
have resulted in new theories on how the Americas were populated by early
people. The present theory (last 60 years) was as follows. Fossil records
indicate that about 12,500 years ago people migrated from Europe through an area
between Northeast Europe and the Northwest tip of North America across an area
called Beringa into Alaska. There were several migrations, probably during the
“ice ages” when much of the earth’s water was locked up in great glaciers
exposing a land bridge across the Bering Sea. Some of the first humans to enter
North America are believed to have crossed this land bridge. They found a
corridor of open ground between the glaciers leading south and/or may have
followed the coastline. No one seems to agree on what they did next, but we know
that humans spread across North America and were living in Florida about 10,000
years ago. The recent theories, based on the fact that people were also living
in southern South America at the same time, indicate that they used different
routes into the Americas, possibly traveling by rafts or boats. There will be
much debate over the next several years on the subject as to when North and
South America were populated, but we know they arrived and survived.
2. Upon entering the new land they found abundant animals called megafauna;
wooly mammoth, mastodon, hairy rhinoceros, giant bison, ground sloth, and many
other great beasts. These were large; slow moving, docile, fat, and good eating.
The challenge was how to eat them and survive the encounter. There were also
many predators; wolves, lions, and probably the most feared, Artodus Simus, a
very large bear that fossils indicate was twice the size of the largest Grizzly.
3. The first weapons were hand held spears that could be thrown or used to
thrust into an animal. This was extremely risky when you consider the mammoth
could grow to over twelve feet tall, weighed in excess of 10 tons, and had a
trunk over 10 feet long. Getting close enough to thrust a spear into the vital
area required a team effort of several hunters or one very hungry (or stupid?)
individual. The need for a better weapon resulted in a device, which enabled the
hunter to throw a spear with sufficient force and accuracy to kill the
megafauna. This weapon, which is dated in Europe to 30,000 BC, and later
appeared in North America at about the time of mans arrival, is the Atlatl.
4. The Atlatl consists of a throwing stick with a hook. a weight (boat stone)
and a dart tipped with a stone point. The darts vary in length from three to
seven feet and can be propelled with sufficient force to penetrate the vital
area of any animal. The Atlatl enabled the hunter to engage the larger dangerous
animals from a safe distance and harvest the smaller, swifter, animals as the
magafauna disappeared. The weapon is still used today to hunt in remote areas of
the world. Modern man has also revived the weapon for both sport and hunting.
5. Today we find many stone points in this area, which we call "arrowheads".
The true arrowhead is very small, about one inch long and less than one half
inch wide. Mostly what we find are the dart points from the Atlatl; remember
they were used over 12,000 years. The bow and arrow was a recent invention,
being introduced into our area only about 700 AD.
6. To be successful and survive man had to develop and produce the tools
necessary for survival. These were manufactured from the materials at hand;
wood, bone and stone. One of the most interesting manufacturing techniques
involved the production of stone tools; projectile points, scrapers, knives and
digging implements. This is a reduction process called Flint Knapping.