Pedernales Projectile Point: Identification, Age & Range

How to identify a Pedernales point

Most Pedernales points run about 60 to 90 mm long (call it two and a half to three and a half inches), though the documented range stretches from 30 to 130 mm. Blades measure 30 to 50 mm across at the shoulders and are thin for their size, usually just 5 to 7 mm thick, and the cross section is flattened. The outline is triangular, with edges that are gently convex to straight on fresh examples; pieces that were resharpened many times can show concave or S-curved edges instead.

The base is the trait to check first. Classic examples are bifurcated: a notch about 5 to 8 mm deep splits the bottom of the stem into two lobes, and striking out that notch sometimes left a short flute-like scar running up one or both faces. Not every example is this obvious. On some points the base is only slightly concave, and those are far easier to confuse with other stemmed types. The stem itself is usually straight-sided, occasionally tapering a little, around 15 to 20 mm long, and unlike many Archaic dart points it rarely shows grinding along the hafting edges.

Shoulders are prominent and usually barbed, but the barbs shrank each time the blade was resharpened, and heavily reworked pieces can lose their shoulders almost entirely and take on a lanceolate look. Workmanship is generally high, with a random flaking pattern, and makers often used local central Texas cherts, including the distinctive amoeba-patterned chert of the Pedernales River country.

Age and where it's found

Pedernales points date to roughly 3,000 to 2,000 B.P., placing them in the Transitional Archaic. They are concentrated in central Texas, extending downstream toward the lower Rio Grande, with numbers thinning toward the Texas coast and the Trans-Pecos.

Occasional finds turn up well outside that core: Cambron recorded examples at shelter and shell mound sites in Alabama, and Suhm and Krieger considered such distant occurrences likely intrusive, meaning the points probably traveled rather than being made locally.

Similar and related types

• Montell Split Stem — Montell also has a split base, but its notch is a long, narrow slot between squarish ears rather than the broader indent of a Pedernales.
• Langtry — Langtry points have a contracting stem with a straight to slightly concave base, without the deep central split.
• Marshall — Marshall points share the barbed shoulders but carry a broad concave base instead of a true bifurcated stem.
• Uvalde — Uvalde points are bifurcated too, but the stem expands toward the base and the basal lobes are more rounded.