Retiring the Projectile Point Series Concept and Chronology in the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau

Abstract

The concept of projectile point series was first developed in California and the Great Basin in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1981, applying the Monitor Valley projectile point key, Thomas (1981) assigned chronological ranges to five projectile point series for the Great Basin, the Gatecliff Series, the Humboldt Series, the Elko Series, the Rosegate Series, and the Desert Series, which were based on the Berkeley projectile point naming conventions. Each of these series, which are still in use today, include different morphological point forms that—although sharing the same primary designator—do not share the same temporal spans or geographic distributions. Morphologically different projectile points do not share a priori temporal, geographic, or cultural associations simply by virtue of sharing a series label. The use of the series concept and chronology in projectile point analyses in the West should be discontinued and replaced with analyses of morphological forms, geographic distributions, and temporal spans of individual point types.