Morphological and Functional Analysis of Bone Points “Bird Tongue” from the Goya-Malabrigo Contexts of Northeastern Argentina
Hollowed points locally known as “bird tongue” are bone artifacts recovered from Goya-Malabrigo assemblages of northeastern Argentina. For their manufacture, Myocastor coypus tibiae were used by hollowing out the proximal metaphysis to insert a shaft, and shaping by sawing/fracture and grin...
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| Autores principales: | , |
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| Formato: | Artículo revista |
| Lenguaje: | Español |
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Centro de Estudios Históricos. UA CONICET
2023
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| Acceso en línea: | https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/comechingonia/article/view/38929 |
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| Sumario: | Hollowed points locally known as “bird tongue” are bone artifacts recovered from Goya-Malabrigo assemblages of northeastern Argentina. For their manufacture, Myocastor coypus tibiae were used by hollowing out the proximal metaphysis to insert a shaft, and shaping by sawing/fracture and grinding the apical end. The microwear analysis suggests they were used as weapons. Some of their features, such as very sharp extended tip and weak hafting areas, suggest they were subject to repeated rejuvenation processes and high discard rates. The rejuvenation process was focused on the tips, whose fracture produced smaller points with less sharp profiles that gradually decreased their effectiveness. The discard thresholds appear to have been around 4-5 cm in full length. The analytical difficulty in identifying small fractured fragments of these points and correctly assigning them to this typological group, suggests that they may have had a higher frequency than observed in the archaeological record. Additionally, the relatively fragile design could have contributed to a high discard rate off sites during hunting events. |
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