The Arizona Paleoindian Projectile Point Survey

Summary

The Arizona Paleoindian Projectile Point Survey is a long-term project to document known occurrences of Paleoindian and Paleoarchaic-age projectile points throughout the state of Arizona by drawing upon public outreach, voluntary disclosure, and the results of published research. Of particular interest are public and private artifact collections containing projectile point types dating between roughly 11,500 and 8,000 radiocarbon years before present. These include fluted Paleoindian point types such as Clovis and Folsom, unfluted point types such as Plainview, Agate Basin, Hell Gap, Eden, Scottsbluff, and Frederick-Allen, and Paleoarchaic point types such as Lake Mojave, Silver Lake, and San Dieguito. The survey builds upon previous regional and statewide compilations (e.g. Agenbroad 1967; Faught and Freeman 1998; Haynes 2011; Huckell 1982; Pilles and Geib 2001) while employing the methodology and GIS approach of the Paleoindian Database of the Americas (PIDBA). The Arizona Paleoindian Projectile Point Survey is guided by two interrelated objectives: 1) create and maintain an accessible statewide database of known Paleoindian projectile points and 2) improve the overall resolution of Paleoindian point distributions in the western United States (in conjunction with PIDBA).

Keywords

Temporal Coverage

Radiocarbon Date: 11500 to 8000 (BP)

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Jesse Ballenger

Contributor(s): Saul L. Hedquist

Notes

General Note: Those interested in contributing information to the statewide database are encouraged to visit http://azpaleosurvey.pidba.org/ and http://pidba.utk.edu/arizona.htm, or email questions, comments, and/or suggestions to azpaleosurvey@gmail.com. Researchers interested in using statewide and continental Paleoindian projectile point databases to reconstruct human colonization are referred to the PIDBA website, available at http://pidba.utk.edu/main.htm.