Levanna Projectile Point
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Levanna projectile points are stone
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 ...
s manufactured by Native Americans what is now the Northeastern United States, generally in the time interval of 700-1350 AD. They are true
arrowhead An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, as well as to fulfill some special purposes such as sign ...
s rather than atlatl dart points, and they derive their name from the specimens found at the Levanna site in Cayuga County, New York.


Description

Levanna points are about 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 inches (30 to 45 mm) in length but may be as small as 7/8 inch (22 mm) to as large as 3 inches (76 mm). They are generally rather thin and triangular about as wide as they are long, and usually have a concave base. They are generally made from local
flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...
s,
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> ...
,
quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...
and
quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tec ...
.


Age and cultural affiliations

These points appeared in the American northeast around 700 AD and were very common from about 900 AD until around 1350 AD when it was replaced by the Madison projectile point. They are associated with the Owasco Indians and others, and their disappearance coincides roughly with the appearance of the
Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
culture.


Distribution

These points are found in much of New England, south eastern Ontario, the Middle Atlantic area, as far west as Virginia and eastern Pennsylvania.


See also

* Other projectile points


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levanna Projectile Point Projectile points Indigenous weapons of the Americas