Shifts in Projectile Point Form from Pre-Mission through Mission Times within the Pluralistic Context of the Texas Missions

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "From the Famed to the Forgotten: Exploring San Antonio’s Storied History Through Urban Archeology" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The missions of south Texas and the Coastal Plains became home to members of hundreds of indigenous groups during the 18th century. These groups occupied a large geographic area encompassing Northern Mexico, West Texas, the Edwards Plateau, Central Texas and the Coastal Plains prior to occupying the missions. Ethnohistoric descriptions suggest that groups were territorial and manufactured and used unique variants of triangular arrow point forms.   While these formal variants are present in mission contexts, over time, the range of forms manufactured at the missions decreases. This paper considers the factors that may have contributed to the reduction in projectile point forms and what it tells us about approaches to signaling group identity within the pluralistic context of the missions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From the Famed to the Forgotten: Exploring San Antonio’s Storied History Through Urban Archeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology