Golondrina points (formerly Plainview Golondrina) are
lanceolate
The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...
spear
A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fasten ...
or
dart
Dart or DART may refer to:
* Dart, the equipment in the game of darts
Arts, entertainment and media
* Dart (comics), an Image Comics superhero
* Dart, a character from ''G.I. Joe''
* Dart, a ''Thomas & Friends'' railway engine character
* Dar ...
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 be ...
s, of medium size, dated to the transitional
Paleo-Indian Period, between 9000–7000
BP. Golondrina points were attached on split-stem
hafts and may have served to bring down medium-sized animals such as deer, as well as functioning as butchering knives. Distribution is widespread throughout most of
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
, and points have also been discovered in
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...
and
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. The concentration of Golondrina specimens is highest across the
South Texas Plains, where the point is the most prevalent of Paleo-Indian types and defines a distinctive cultural pattern for the region.
The Golondrina point is so named for its flared basal corners ("ears"), which resemble a swallow's (''golondrina'' in Spanish) split tail. Classification of Golondrina can be difficult because of its similarity to other types, particularly the
Plainview point
In the classification of Archaeological cultures of North America, the term Plainview points refer to Paleoindian projectile points dated between 10,000 and 9,000 Before Present. The point was named in 1947 after the discovery of a large cache of ...
, to which it was originally thought to be related.
Classification
Classification of the Golondrina point was made by
Texas Historical Commission
The Texas Historical Commission is an agency dedicated to historic preservation within the state of Texas. It administers the National Register of Historic Places for sites in Texas.
The commission also identifies Recorded Texas Historic La ...
archeologist
LeRoy Johnson Jr. in 1964, after the discovery of a collection of unrecognized projectile points at the
Devil's Mouth site in the
Amistad Reservoir
Amistad Reservoir ( es, Presa Amistad) is a reservoir on the Rio Grande at its confluence with the Devils River northwest of Del Rio, Texas. The lake is bounded by Val Verde County on the United States side of the international border and by th ...
, Texas. Initially believed to be related to the Plainview point classification, the new type was termed "Plainview Golondrina" by Johnson, who used a genus-species approach for the naming. This classification method sought to describe the relationship between the two types, placing Plainview as the genus, and Golondrina as the species, to highlight key similarities and differences. But by 1977, the genus-species classification approach had been discarded, and the name Golondrina alone was being used to represent the Devil's Mouth specimens. Subsequent research and technological analysis determined this type to be separate and distinct from the Plainsview point, and the name was shortened to simply "Golondrina" by Thomas C. Kelly in 1982.
The type takes its name from a pronounced flaring of the basal corners (stem), which recall the split tail of a
swallow
The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae, are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...
(''golondrina'' in Spanish). The Golondrina is considered to be a
Plano point
In archaeology, Plano point is flaked stone projectile points and tools created by the various Plano cultures of the North American Great Plains between 9000 BC and 6000 BC for hunting, and possibly to kill other humans.
They are bifacially worked ...
.
Description
The Golondrina point is medium-sized and lanceolate-shaped with a lenticular cross-section that exhibits convex sides.
The type displays a distinctive auriculate ("eared") stem with basal corners that flare outward. The blade edges are slightly serrated with a recurved outline—wide at the bottom, then narrowing before becoming wide and then thin again at the distal end, a so-called "fish shaped profile".
The
flaking style is generally random, with no attention given to alignment of
flake scars. However, collateral flaking—where parallel flakes have been removed equally, resulting in a median ridge on the blade edges—has also been observed in some specimens.
The basal edge of the Golondrina presents concave with a deep basal notch that varies from a flattened, inverted, v-shape to recurved. The Golondrina point can range in length from 32–61 mm, with a width ranging from 23–32 mm and a thickness from 6–8 mm.
The width of the base ranges from 22–29 mm with a typical basal concavity of 4 mm or more. The Golondrina is
unfluted, without a longitudinal channel flake.
The point has an expanding
hafting
Hafting is a process by which an artifact, often bone, stone, or metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appeara ...
area where the width, upward from the stem, increases in size. Analysis suggests that Golondrina points were attached on split-stem hafts either with or without foreshafts. They may have served a dual function as projectile points as well as butchering knives.
By nature of a split-stem haft style, Golondrina points would not need to be deeply set, resulting in a largely exposed cutting edge. The hafting area, as well as the side and basal edges are usually ground dull.
Edwards
chert
Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a prec ...
, Alibates
agate
Agate () is a common rock formation, consisting of chalcedony and quartz as its primary components, with a wide variety of colors. Agates are primarily formed within volcanic and metamorphic rocks. The ornamental use of agate was common in Ancie ...
, and Tecovas
jasper
Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases,Kostov, R. I. 2010. Review on the mineralogical systematics of jasper and related rocks. – Archaeometry Workshop, 7, 3, 209-213PDF/ref> ...
were the major materials utilized by Paleo-Indians in the Southern Plains for the manufacture of flaked stone implements. Chert was the most important stone for tool making throughout pre-historic central Texas and there were many available sites where it was acquired and
knapped
Knapping is the shaping of flint, chert, obsidian, or other conchoidal fracturing stone through the process of lithic reduction to manufacture stone tools, strikers for flintlock firearms, or to produce flat-faced stones for building or facing w ...
.
Age and cultural affiliations
Most Golondrina points have been dated to the Transitional
Paleo-Indian Period, between 9000–7000
BP, with excavation of
stratified
Stratification may refer to:
Mathematics
* Stratification (mathematics), any consistent assignment of numbers to predicate symbols
* Data stratification in statistics
Earth sciences
* Stable and unstable stratification
* Stratification, or st ...
sites along with
radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon.
The method was dev ...
providing a definitive age.
The first dating of Golondrina points was made after excavations of area C in the Devil's Mouth site which revealed Paleo-Indian projectile points that were radiocarbon assayed to 8700 BP. Later excavations in 1976, at the nearby
Baker Cave in Texas, revealed a large
hearth
A hearth () is the place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating and for cooking, usually constituted by at least a horizontal hearthstone and often enclosed to varying degrees by any combination of reredos (a lo ...
in the Golondrina stratum containing a wide variety of small game and plant remains left by early hunter gathers. This archaeological assemblage was termed Golondrina Complex, and the materials were attributed to the post-
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
period. At the same site, Golondrina materials stratified near the base of a rock-shelter deposit were radiocarbon dated at 9000 BP
Projectile points featuring more
Archaic characteristics, including
early barbed and
early stemmed, share an overlapping chronology with Golondrina.
Distribution
Golondrina points are widespread across much of central, southern, and western
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
, with distribution extending northward along the
Balcones Escarpment
The Balcones Fault or Balcones Fault Zone is an area of largely normal faulting Edwards Aquifer in the U.S. state of Texas that runs roughly from the southwest part of the state near Del Rio to the north-central region near Dallas along Inte ...
. They are particularly prevalent across the South Texas Plains, so much so as to be said to represent the first unique cultural pattern in the area. Most Golondrina specimens from the
South Texas Plains are not excavated but rather found on the site's surface. They often appear as part of mixed collections with artifacts of later periods.
Several sites have also been found in Arkansas as well as in the
Lower Pecos Canyonlands and the
Mexican states of
Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas), is a state in the northeast region of Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal Entiti ...
and
Nuevo León
Nuevo León () is a state in the northeast region of Mexico. The state was named after the New Kingdom of León, an administrative territory from the Viceroyalty of New Spain, itself was named after the historic Spanish Kingdom of León. With a ...
.
Comparison with other projectile points
The Golondrina can be difficult to type because of its similarity to other point classifications. In particular the distinction between Golondrina and Plainview is not yet completely resolved.
Plainview
Past hypotheses have suggested mistakenly that the Golondrina was a descendant or variant of the
Plainview type. Although the two points exhibit similarities, particularly in terms of shape, they are now recognized as separate types. Identification is made from a lack of an auriculated, fishtail base on the Plainview and a deeper basal concavity on the Golondrina. Plainview points may have served to bring down large bison, while Golondrina points may have been used for killing smaller game such as deer, as well as doubling as a butchering knife. Compared to the split-stem hafting style of the Golondrina point without a deep setting, the shape of the Plainview points would necessitate them being set relatively deeply into a socketed haft that once bound would leave less of the cutting edge exposed.
Stratigraphic
Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks.
Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithostrati ...
evidence from the
St. Mary's Hall site in southern, central Texas implies that Golondrina may have superseded Plainview on the southern Plains.
Others
The
Simpson
Simpson most often refers to:
* Simpson (name), a British surname
*''The Simpsons'', an animated American sitcom
**The Simpson family, central characters of the series ''The Simpsons''
Simpson may also refer to:
Organizations Schools
*Simpso ...
and
Suwannee point The Suwannee point is a large unfluted lanceolate Paleo-Indians projectile point that features a recurvate profile with a slightly narrowed waist and a convex base. The point is one of the earliest forms of lanceolate types and is dated between 105 ...
s, found in Florida and the Southeastern United States, are similar to the Golondrina in shape and age. The
Dalton point, found in the central United States, shares a similar outline and basal corner auriculation with Golondrina, which may imply that they are part of a series.
Identification is made by examination of the blade edges—Golondrina exhibits much less serration. The
Meserve type has also been known to cause confusion, as it is considered a resharpened variant of the Plainview and Golondrina types.
References
Citations
Literature cited
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Projectile points
Primitive technology
Archaeological artefact types