Sarah Janesko, Senior Archaeologist, New South Associates, Inc.
In a recent excavation in Stafford County, VA, archaeologists with New South Associates (NSA) uncovered a Clovis projectile point.
People of the Clovis culture are known to have lived in this region since about 13,000 years ago, or about 11,000 BCE1. The Clovis culture is well known by archaeologists for their style of fluted projectile points which they hafted to spears for hunting megafauna like the mastodon, wooly mammoth, bison, horses, and others2. Clovis people lived in a temperate climate that was likely 5-10 degrees colder than today’s climate. They moved across grasslands, coniferous forests, and upland terrain in small groups to hunt, fish, and gather their food using tools made from a range of lithic materials including jasper, chert, orthoquartzite, and quartz.
This projectile point, found in Stratum II of an excavation unit on an upper terrace above the Potomac Creek, is made from jasper breccia – a cryptocrystalline stone with veins of quartz cemented into its matrix. Jasper and chert were commonly used to make stone tools due to their small grain structure, which fractures in more predictable ways than quartz or quartzite. The jasper used to manufacture this point while not definitively sourced, has characteristics of Brook Run jasper, a stone type found at a quarry just over 9 miles from where this Clovis point was excavated. This might indicate that the stone for this tool was quarried locally and used by people who hunted and camped in this region.
To gain a better understanding of the types of animals that were being hunted and processed at this site along the Potomac Creek, NSA tested several artifacts, including this Clovis point, to assess the presence of animal protein residue. Archaeological Investigations Northwest, Inc. (AINW) analyzed the samples using a method called crossover immunoelectrophoresis (CIEP), a technique which is based on the immune (antigen-antibody) reaction. In this process, extracts of protein residues from artifacts in an ammonia solution are tested against antisera from known animals. Positive reactions to antisera indicate that the stone tool or tool fragment came into direct contact with a species in that Family or Order.
The results of this analysis showed that this Clovis projectile point contained protein residue from Bovidae, the biological family which includes bison and domestic cattle. These Bovidae proteins are likely from ancient bison, and have been identified on other Clovis points along the East Coast in North and South Carolina2,3. This is truly a special artifact which adds to our understanding of some of the first people who lived on the land we now call Virginia.
1. Boyd, Cliff. 2020. A Review of Paleoindian Research in Virginia and a View towards the Future. In The Archaeology of Virginia’s First Peoples, edited by Elizabeth A. Moore and Bernard K. Means. Archeological Society of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
2. Moore, Christopher R., Larry Kimball, Albert C. Goodyear, Mark J. Brooks, I. Randolph Daniel Jr., Allen West, Sean G. Taylor, Kiersten J. Weber, John L. Fagan, and Cam M. Walker. 2023. Paleoamerican Exploitation of Extinct Megafauna Revealed Through Immunological Blood Residue and Microwear Analysis, North and South Carolina, USA. Scientific Reports 13.
3. Moore, Christopher R., Mark J. Brooks, Larry R. Kimball, Margaret E. Newman, and Brian P. Kooyman. 2016. Early Hunter-Gatherer Tool Use and Animal Exploitation: Protein and Microwear Evidence from the Central Savannah River Valley. American Antiquity 81(1):132–147.
(not cited) Carr, Kurt W. 2018. Peopling of the Middle Atlantic: A Review of Paleoindian Research. In Middle Atlantic Prehistory: Foundations and Practice, pp. 219–260. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland.