A basic element of thinking archaeologically is through classification. Classification helps us to cope with complexity and only look at certain attributes that are pertinent to the scientific questions at hand. It would be impractical to study house cats by evaluating every attribute we can think of to describe each individual house cat. Instead, we know that all house cats share certain attributes within a range of variation. By sorting house cats into groups based on a specific attribute, like color, and ignoring attributes that may not be important to our study, we can start to understand that range of variation which is particular to one inquiry or research question.
This is the basis of archaeological classification, too. We place objects, including projectile points, into categories based on attributes so we can better conceptualize and understand the prehistoric world. Since points are made out of stone, they can survive a long time in the ground and tend to be fairly plentiful because people were always making new ones as the old ones broke and were discarded. There are a myriad of varieties of points in North America and in Wyoming which vary by size and shape and even intended use. Archaeologists don’t call projectile points “arrowheads” since some points were meant to be hafted to spears or darts or knives.
A group of attributes that occur together on many different points define a particular “type” of point. These can be attributes like side-notched, lanceolate shaped, or parallel flaking pattern. Archaeologists give these point types names like Clovis, Folsom, or Agate Basin. Furthermore, particular point types tend to be found within a certain geographic range and in a particular time period. When we map the distribution of point types across an area, we are able to visualize the point type distributions. Point type distributions are often used to study the ranges of groups of prehistoric people since we assume people belonging to a particular group would have used the same types of artifacts including point types. Therefore, point types are one type of classification scheme which help archaeologists study the cultural history and spread of prehistoric peoples.
In other studies, archaeologists will come up with different classification schemes to help examine other questions, like trade or exchange or group movement. The types of rocks used to make points are often able to be sourced to particular areas where they were quarried. For instance, a golden-yellow colored chert comes from eastern Wyoming, while a deep red chert is often found in the Big Horns. Locations where these rocks are found are called “chert sources”. An archaeologist would classify his or her points based on a chert source when they were examining questions pertaining to trade or inter-regional interaction.
An archaeologist’s classification scheme is directly related to their hypothesis as it will change with each new question and area of research. Questions investigating use of prehistoric tools would classify based on a completely different set of attributes. There is no one “correct” classification in archaeology.
