Early Man Projectile Points in the Southwest - Kenneth Honea

Escobas points, newly defined in this guide, were to all appearances first discovered and described at Pecos Pueblo, southeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Specimens excavated there evidently were collected by inhabitants of the pueblos from nearby sites pre-dating the pueblo. This point type is named after Escobas Peak, near Pecos.

Escobas

Escobas points are lanceolate shaped and are consistently broadest immediately below mid-section. Upper lateral edges are usually straight, but they may be slightly rounded. Lower lateral edges are set off from the upper portion of the point body by very slight shoulders, so that this point must be considered as stemmed. Parallel to slightly expanding, stem edges are characteristically faintly concave between the shoulders and base edges. The base is always distinctly concave. Average dimensions: length 6.0 cm., shoulder width 2.0 cm., base width 1.7 cm. Workmanship is not refined. Initial flaking of point faces has been achieved by direct percussion; flake scars are irregular. Stem edges may show slight secondary retouch by either percussion or pressure. Basal thinning was accomplished primarily by the striking of irregular flakes from the basal concavity, to a lesser extent by removal of horizontal flakes from the base. Stem edges are well smoothed; the concave base is either slightly smoothed or not at all.

The relation of Escobas points to other Early Man points has not yet been determined. They do, however, resemble some other early types. Escobas points are broadly similar to Rio Grande points in shape, but they differ from them in the following respects: parallel to slightly expanding stem edges of Escobas points are consistently slightly concave between the shoulders and base, while stem edges on Rio Grande points are always straight and taper somewhat to the base. Escobas point stems are shorter, relative to overall point length than Rio Grande stems. Shoulders on Escobas are much fainter than on Rio Grande points; bases of Escobas points are, so far as known, always concave, whereas they are only occasionally so on Rio Grande points. Both, however, share the attribute of being well-smoothed on stem edges, and are either slightly smoothed or not at all on basal edges. Escobas points occur in the Pecos district, the Upper Rio Grande Valley, and, according to Stewart Peckham (personal communication), in the San Juan Basin of northwest New Mexico. They will likely be found to occur in other parts of the Southwest, in some areas in association with points of the Rio Grande type.

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