Etley Stemmed Projectile Point: Identification, Age & Range

How to identify a Etley Stemmed point

Size is the first clue. Etley points run 76-279 mm long (roughly 3 to 11 inches) but only 32-60 mm wide, so the blade looks long and narrow for its length, with edges that often run nearly parallel through the midsection. The widest part of the blade typically sits above the shoulders rather than at them. Blade edges are usually excurvate or gently recurved; pieces that saw heavy resharpening can develop incurvate edges instead.

Check the stem next: it is strikingly short for such a long point, usually just 10-15 mm, or about one-tenth of the total length. It can expand slightly or contract slightly, ending in a straight to slightly convex base. Unlike many Archaic types, the base and hafting area show no grinding. Shoulders vary from sharply barbed to angled upward, largely depending on how much the blade was resharpened during its use life.

Workmanship leans on broad percussion flaking with only minimal pressure retouch, leaving a random flake pattern and a cross section, 10-15 mm thick, that ranges from flattened to lens-shaped. In the core range, most examples were made from Burlington chert that was not heat treated, so the stone tends to be a matte white to gray rather than glossy. Researchers believe the big, unnotched Wadlow blade served as a preform that knappers later finished into the Etley.

Age and where it's found

Etley points date to about 4,100-2,500 B.P. Archaeologists working along the lower Illinois River treat them as the marker artifact of the Titterington phase of the Late Archaic, dated there to roughly 2200-1800 B.C.E.

The heaviest concentrations center on the St. Louis area and the neighboring counties of eastern Missouri and western Illinois. Finds thin out toward southern Iowa, western Kentucky, and the western edge of Indiana, and the type has only rarely been reported as far north as southern Minnesota. A large stemmed blade found well outside this footprint is more likely to be a different type, such as a Savannah River point in the Southeast.

Similar and related types

• Hardin Stemmed — Hardin points are Early Archaic, generally smaller, and show finer flaking with a ground, expanding stem, while Etley stems lack grinding.
• Pickwick Stemmed — Pickwick is a Southeast type with a longer contracting stem and often recurved blade, versus the Etley's stubby stem and Midwest range.
• Eva Barbed — Eva points have long, prominent basal barbs flanking a short stem and center on the Tennessee River valley rather than the St. Louis region.
• Meadowood Projectile Point — Meadowood is a thin, side-notched Northeast type, so its notching and thinness separate it quickly from the thick, stemmed Etley.
• Savannah River Projectile Point — Another oversized Archaic stemmed blade, but Savannah River points are broader relative to length and belong to the Atlantic Southeast.