A Preliminary Examination of Quantitative Methods for Classifying Small Triangular Points From late Prehistoric Sites: A Case Study From the Ohio River Valley

Abstract

Several classification methods have been proposed for allowing tighter chronological control of small triangular points recovered from Late Prehistoric sites in the Ohio River Valley. In this paper, we expand on these by introducing quantitative methods for metric measurements of small triangular points. The use of quantitative methods allows for a less subjective means of classifying the points. The proposed method is applied to specimens recovered from several Fort Ancient sites in the outer Bluegrass and Appalachian Foothills Regions of Kentucky. The methods used here can be applied to determine the relative temporal placement of small triangular points and reduce some of the subjective element inherent in earlier studies.