These Paleoindian artifacts are offered as evidence that ancient peoples that camped at Meadowcroft Rockshelter in western Pennsylvania continued up-stream and visited western New York as well. All of these points are surface finds, which proves that most if not all projectile point styles that are excavated can be found lying on the ground if one looks in the right places. The fact that points of the same typology are found hundreds of miles apart from their original point of discovery offers two possibilities. First, and less probable, the people that made these artifacts in western NY were the same people that made them at Meadowcroft. Secondly, and we believe is much more probable, related peoples or descendents possessed the same knowledge of projectile typology, and created these artifacts which were well known style types at the time.
The archaeological record shows us over and over again that people with only the most primitive forms of communication were able to share detailed knowledge over large distances. This knowledge probably extended to all areas such as hunting techniques, medicine, astronomy and many other disciplines besides tool-making. Further, the fact that a Miller lanceolate, or Miller lanceolate related point would be found in western NY as well as western PA, shows that this same dispersal of knowledge pre-dates the Clovis period, perhaps by thousands of years.
Photo 1: The Spiritrock Collection. These artifacts are similar to the famous Meadowcroft Rockshelter Collection. Discovered by: Spiritwalker and Rockfinder9, the team at Stone Age New York.
Photo 2: Close-up of Miller lanceolate-related point. Like the original, this artifact is unfluted.
Photo 3: Artifact number 4 of the collection is a previously described, two-point base, side notched pentagonal
Photo 4: Ovate Clovis point, made from pink translucent chalcedony.
Photo 5: Light behind Ovate point shines through artifact around edges and near tip, (translucence).
Happy anniversary SANY!