A Cascade point is a

projectile point In 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 been kept in the ...

associated with the Cascade phase, an ancient culture of Native Americans that settled in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

that existed from 9000 or 10000 BC until about 5500 BC. The Cascade (Bipointed) point is typically narrow,

lanceolate The following terms are used to describe leaf plant morphology, morphology in the description and taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade ...

leaf shaped, with either a pointed or rounded base. There are also two other variants, one with a shallow concave base and the other with a sharply contracting basal margin. Cascade points are generally regarded as poor temporal markers because they are found in early, middle, and even late Holocene contexts. It is unclear whether this broad timespan is a function of prolonged use of the point form, later groups recycling discarded artifacts, or a combination of both. The spatial and temporal distribution of foliate points in the northern

Great Basin The Great Basin () is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja Californi ...

and present new data derived from work at a stratified rockshelter in Oregon's Warner Valley have been reviewed. Foliate projectile points have been uncovered there that meet the original definition and more recent refinements of the Cascade point type associated with a late early Holocene and middle Holocene occupation.Cascade Points in the Northern Great Basin: A Radiocarbon-dated Foliate Point Assemblage from Warner Valley, Oregon. By GM Smith ; P Carey ; ES Middleton ; J Kielhofer A projectile found lodged in the hip of

Kennewick Man Kennewick Man or Ancient One was a Native American man who lived during the early Holocene, whose skeletal remains were found in 1996 washed out on a bank of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington. Radiocarbon tests show the man lived a ...

was leaf-shaped, long, broad and had serrated edges.

References

{{Prehistoric technology, state=expanded Projectile points History of Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest 10th-millennium BC establishments

See also

References