Experimental Shooting Experiments with Backed Pieces: Functional Differences in Hafting Configurations and Implications for the Use of the Tip Cross-Sectional Area

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

A variety of technocomplexes across the world has produced semi-circular backed pieces, including the South African Howiesons Poort technocomplex (65-60 ka). These pieces have been interpreted to have functioned as arrowheads based on use-trace evidence, yet their exact hafting configuration is not yet clear.

We produced experimental arrows, with replicated segments of the average dimensions as those from the Howiesons Poort as tips. We hafted the segments in two different configurations onto the arrows: transversally, and diagonally at a ~45° angle. We shot the arrows into blocks of gelatin to determine if differently hafted arrows have differing penetration capabilities and produce differently sized wounds. We show that transversal arrows consistently outperform diagonally hafted arrows.

We further calculate the tip cross sectional area, a measure a standardized measure for lithic points assumed to correlate with penetrative capabilities and used to hypothesize the weapon type that points were produced for. We show that hafting configuration appears a better predictor of penetration depth than TCSA alone. This underlines the fact that experimental results help interpret archaeological hafting configurations and that hypotheses of hafting configuration should be included in interpretations on weapon types used.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53586