In 1987, Moises Aguirre Calzada was working in an apple orchard in East Wenatchee, Washington, when he uncovered a large Clovis point. Digging in the dirt with his bare hands, he soon uncovered numerous artifacts. The Richey-Roberts Clovis Site, as it became called, contained 29 items, including 5 large spearpoints, 3 short bone rods.
According to the display in the Washington State Museum in Tacoma:
“Some of the projectile points found were among the largest ever seen and the most beautiful. The whole was largely undisturbed, so archaeologists could see the objects in their original context.”
In his book Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a Continent, archaeologist Brian Fagan writes:
“The fluted projectile point is the most celebrated, distinctive part of the Clovis toolkit. A cache of some of the finest known specimens came from the East Wenatchee site in Washington State, deposited soon after an eruption of nearby Glacier Peak about 9250 BC.”
With regard to the short bone rods, the Museum display states:
“Unusual rods made from mastodon bones were found with the points. Their purpose is unknown.”
In addition to the Richey-Roberts Clovis Cache, other sites with Clovis caches include the Fenn site in Utah and the Anzick site in Montana. The purpose of a tool cache has been debated by archaeologists. In his chapter in The Oxford Companion to Archaeology, David Meltzer reports:
“Befitting wide-ranging hunter-gatherers who lacked animal transport and were able to carry only limited provisions, they often cached stone for later use.”
In their book Archaeology in Washington, Ruth Kirk and Richard Daugherty ask:
“Was this a cache intended for later retrieval, or were the showy points placed as a ritual offering?”
In his book The Ancient Americans: A Reference Guide to the Art, Culture, and History of Pre-Columbian North and South America, Juan Schobinger asks:
“Was this a mere deposit or hiding place, or were these the remains of a hunting temple, or the residence of a shaman, as one of the excavators believed?”
The blade surfaces of the artifacts found at the Richey-Roberts site were checked for traces of blood or animal protein. Ruth Kirk and Richard Daugherty report:
“One large biface and one large point tested positive for bison, and the point also tested positive for deer. This does not necessarily prove hunting.”
The Washington State History Museum in Tacoma has a display on the Richey-Roberts Clovis site.
Making a fluted point
One display at the Washington State Historical Museum shows how fluted points were made. According to the display:
“Making one of these objects can take several attempts and requires special skill. A master craftsman shaped the East Wenatchee points thousands of years ago using a method call ‘percussion flaking.’”
Percussion flaking involves hitting the rock with a hammer stone or antler to detach flakes which creates a sharp edge.
In an article in American Indian Art, R. Jane Silva writes:
“The flintknapping process is most predictable, and thus controllable, when energy can travel through the stone unimpeded by inclusions or a course crystalline structure.”
In selecting the stone, the flinknapper knows that not all stone breaks in such as fashion as to leave a sharp edge.
Ancient America
Long before the European invasion of North America started, the continent was populated with many different kinds of people: people who lived by farming; people who living by hunting game animals and gather wild foods; people who lived by fishing and hunting marine mammals, including whales. The many different groups of people did not live in isolation, but actively traded goods and ideas with other people. The Ancient America series provides overviews of American Indians prior to the European invasion. More from this series:
Ancient America: A very short overview of Clovis
Ancient America: A very short overview of the prehistory of the Grand Canyon
Ancient America: Plateau Indian Artifacts (Photo Diary)
Ancient America: Kennewick Man (The Ancient One)
Ancient America: Windust Phase Indian Artifacts (Photo Diary)
Ancient America: Columbia River Pictographs (Photo Diary)
Ancient America: The Great Basin Archaic
Ancient America: Texas Prior to 5000 BCE