A Barnes point is a type of

projectile point In North American archaeological terminology, a projectile point is an object that was hafted to a weapon that was capable of being thrown or projected, such as a javelin, dart, or arrow. They are thus different from weapons presumed to have ...

dating from the Paleo-Indian period of American archaeology. It is a large, fluted spear point, lanceolate in shape, with "delicate ears" and a fishtail base. The fluting, or groove in the center of the point, tends to extend nearly the entire length of the point and were mainly used to hunt megafauna. Barnes points were first classified in 1963 by William Roosa, who recognized that apart from using a similar fluting technique to that of

Folsom point Folsom points are projectile points associated with the Folsom tradition of North America. The style of tool-making was named after the Folsom site located in Folsom, New Mexico, where the first sample was found in 1908 by George McJunkin within t ...

s, they were unique. What made Barnes point unique was that they had a moderate basal cavity followed by divergent sides and the presence of single underflute or Barnes fishing flake. He named them after the Barnes Creek area of

Midland County, Michigan Midland County is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 83,494. The county seat is Midland. The county's name is due to its closeness to the geographical Lower Peninsula's geographical center ...

, where they were found at a location now known as the Barnes site. The Barnes site is a Paleo-Indian site, located in the center of the lower peninsula of Michigan, which dates to between 12,500 and 10,000 B.P. The site was discovered by Wallace Hill, who lived nearby, and staff of the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Museum of Anthropology informed of its existence in 1959. Barnes points are distributed throughout the lower northeastern United States, from

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

to the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

area, extending into Canada. They are associated with the Early Paleoindian Parkhill complex of the eastern Great Lakes region, with sites being especially common in southwestern Ontario. They have also been found in northeastern

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

, suggesting affinities between Indiana and the Great Lakes region during the early and middle portions of the Paleoindian period.

References

Projectile points {{US-archaeology-stub