PA P ERS ON OV ER V IEWS , METHODS , AND POLI C IES 265 FLUTED PO I NT S O F T H E FA R WE S T MI C HAEL F. RONDEAU The study of fluted points in the Far West has been discouraged by the lack of sites with primary context, associated Pleistocene fauna, and radiocarbon dating. This lack has diminished the need to stay abreast of current Paleoamerican research in North America. The recognition of non-Clovis fluted point types in the Far West, including California, has lagged behind other regions in North America. The fluted points of the Far West are unstudied and represent an untapped research potential. The findings of the CalFLUTED research project are presented herein. Because this is a report of ongoing studies, the findings and conclusions presented below may be amended and refined in the future. INTRODU C TION Points with One Fluted Face he California Fluted Lanceolate Uniform Testing The extant literature has occasionally provided Tand Evaluation Database (CalFLUTED) project assertions that points fluted on only one face should be began with the asking of a single question: what is a fluted rejected as true fluted points. However, justifications for point? This question grew out of a diverse and seemingly these assertions have been poorly supported, at best. This incompatible array of projectile points presented to the research effort has indicated that while some points could author over several decades, all of which were designated as not be fluted on both faces, they usually fell into a larger fluted points. In the attempt to answer this question, a number category of specimens that did not need to be fluted on both of additional issues has arisen, significant among them the faces for end-thinning purposes. In other cases, use damage question: what is a flute? and subsequent repairs have nearly obliterated flute evidence. This suggests that such circumstances may have also left The pursuit of answers has resulted in more than 40 some points, originally fluted on both faces, showing only a studies (including those in progress) and have involved single flute, or none, at time of discard. more than 400 projectile points (including non-relevant and unreported specimens) and related bifaces, mainly from End-thinning as the Basic Issue California, Nevada, and Oregon (Table 1). Critical support for these studies has included consultations with researchers Attempts to make fluting something special beyond and experts within and outside California, lengthy literature its temporal placement or its technical nature, such as with reviews on past and present fluted point studies, as well as unsubstantiated blood groove claims, have only served to the perusal of a large number of additional fluted projectile obfuscate the evidence. The evidence found by this research points mainly from outside the Far West. argues that technological fluting was only one within a set of basal thinning techniques that also included pressure end The project has confronted a number of issues: thinning, sometimes before and/or after the actual flutes were definitions of fluted points and flutes, variability in fluted created. points of the Far West, the transition from fluted to end- thinned points, determining what projectile point attributes, The data indicate the presence of both pressure and if any, are distinctive to the Far West, identifying what percussion scars (Figure 1) to guide subsequent fluting attributes may signal post-Clovis style fluted points, and attempts and, at the least, subsequent pressure removal of the evaluating the claim for hundreds of Clovis points from the flute scar margin ridges (Figure 2) to further end-thin some Tulare Lake locality. These findings are the subject of the fluted points (Rondeau 2006f). In addition, there are fluted discussions presented here. points that also exhibit pressure end-thinning (Rondeau 2005e, 2006g; Rondeau and Coffman 2007). There is no WHAT IS A F LUTED POINT ? evidence to support the idea that technological fluting was independent of a range of pressure end-thinning techniques. To say a point is fluted, it must have evidence of at least In some cases pressure may have been used in the fluting one flute. This does not escape the question of defining what process itself (Rondeau 2005e; Wilkie et al. 1991). is a flute. Further, having defined what a flute is, the issue then becomes, what constitutes acceptable evidence that one or more flutes do or did exist on any given point? Michael F. Rondeau, Rondeau Archeological, 251 Rockmont Circle, Sacramento, CA 95835, 916-653-0974, [email protected] Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology, Volume 21, 2009, pp. 265-274 266 PRO C EEDINGS OF THE SO C IETY FOR CALIFORNIA AR C HAEOLOGY , VOL . 21, 2009 Table 1. List of CalFLUTED Research Studies Report Subject Date Specimens Reference # 1.* Ione 3/98 1 Rondeau 1998a 2.* Bartle Ranch 3/98 1 Rondeau 1998b 3.* Bear’s Mouth 5/98 1 Rondeau 1998c 4.* Skyrocket 5/98 1 Rondeau 1998d 5.* Ocotillo Wells 12/01 1 Rondeau 2001 6.* Nipomo 8/03 1 Rondeau 2003 7. China Lake 3/04 29 Rondeau 2004a 8. Caspar 4/04 1 Rondeau 2004b 9. Komodo 5/05 40 Rondeau 2005d 10. Tulare Lake 5/05 103 Rondeau 2005e Figure 1. Guide scars before and after fluting. 11. Schonchin Butte 7/04 1 Rondeau 2004c 12. Borax Lake 3 8/04 3 Rondeau 2004d Blackwater Draw 13. 8/04 2 Rondeau 2004e Morphologically Defined Fluted Points NM 14. Santa Barbara 8/04 1 Rondeau 2004f Perhaps the first use of the term “flute” in reference 15. Santa Margarita 11/04 1 Rondeau 2004g to projectile points was by Shertone (1936). Early on, 16. Sierra N.F. 11/04 1 Rondeau 2004h flutes were sometimes referred to as “grooves” without any 17. Tablelands 11/04 1 Rondeau 2004i necessary reference to the scar or scar types that created 18. Bridgeport 11/04 1 Rondeau 2004j those morphological features. Likewise, the identification of 19. Owens Lake 3/05 1 Rondeau 2005a specialized preparation of platforms and faces to be fluted 20. China Lake II 3/05 3 Rondeau 2005b was not necessarily a part of those early reports. 21. Santa Rita 3/05 1 Rondeau 2005c 22. Silurian Valley 7/05 1 Rondeau 2005f For purposes of identification, those points retaining 23. Jakes Valley NV 1/06 6 Rondeau 2006a a biconcave basal cross section can be placed in a 24. Rutherford 2/06 1 Rondeau 2006b morphological fluted point category. The length to which 25. Thomes Creek 2/06 1 Rondeau 2006c this basal cross section may extend from the proximal end 26. Lassen N.F. 5/06 3 Rondeau 2006d of the point is variable, due first to the relative flute lengths 27. Tosawihi NV 7/06 1 Rondeau 2006e among 1) different fluted point types, 2) points of the same 28. Poker Brown NV 7/06 1 Rondeau 2006f type, and 3) opposite faces of single specimens. Second, Sunshine Well 29. 12/06 31 Rondeau 2006g there was use-life shortening of flute grooves due to repair NV 30. Farpoint 8/06 1 Rondeau 2006h and even refabrication of damaged basal elements (Ozbun and Fagan 1996; Rondeau 1998b). The morphological fluted 31. Lost Valley 8/06 1 Rondeau 2006i point type as a vehicle of identification is potentially further 32. Smith Ranch 10/06 1 Rondeau 2006j constrained by the recognized possibility that damage and 33. NSM Display NV 12/06 5 Rondeau 2006k repair could have also resulted in the loss of the entire 34. Goodwin UT 12/06 1 Rondeau 2006l biconcave cross section. Also, if a point was fluted on only Currant Summit one side, then it never had a biconcave basal cross-section, 35. 1/07 1 Rondeau 2007a NV but may nonetheless be a fluted point. Even so, for purposes Jakes Valley Rondeau and Estes of this point definition, flutes are defined as basal thinning 36. 2/07 3 II NV 2007 scars that created a biconcave basal cross-section. Tonopah/Mud Rondeau and 37. 4/07 40 Lake NV Coffman 2007 Technologically Defined Fluted Points 38. Lake County OR 5/07 3 Rondeau 2007b With the arrival of more technologically oriented 39. Dietz Site OR n.d. 87 Rondeau 2007c projectile point studies, the type or types of flake scars creating the groove became more of an issue. Various specially prepared fluting platforms and facial preparation techniques (e.g., pressure retouch isolation of those platforms, grinding or beveling of those platforms, the use PA P ERS ON OV ER V IEWS , METHODS , AND POLI C IES 267 third of the surviving maximum width of the point for it to be defined as a flute and for the point to be define as a metrical fluted point. “Real” Fluted Points Reality rarely cooperates with neat and tidy definitions or even with the more flexible parameters offered above. None of the three definitions offered for flutes or for fluted points, morphological, technological or metrical, is wholly adequate. Not only was manufacture variable, but the vagaries of the use-life of weapon tips, their damage and maintenance, further complicate the picture . The fluted point concept is a present-day, archaeological construct that appears not always to have been followed Figure 2. Flute scar and flute scar with ridge removal scars. systematically by prehistoric flintknappers of the Far West. The fluted point is not a type, but a broad, loosely defined of guide scars to channel the flute flake removals, and the category or class of projectile points. The use of the term creation of a long axis ridge on the biface by flaking from the has been highly variable and a range of definitions may be lateral margins to facilitate flute flake removal) can be used applied.