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CRESCENTS
PALEO & EARLY ARCHAIC
FAR WESTERN U.S.
9,000 to 5,500 B.C.
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COPYRIGHT JUNE 30, 2003 PETER A. BOSTROM

Competer generated hafted crescent.
COMPUTER GENERATED HAFTED CRESCENT
BLACK ROCK DESERT AREA---NEVADA
PRIVATE COLLECTION

    A popular theory about crescents is that they were hafted transversely to the ends of arrow or atlatl thrown spear shafts. This computer generated image illustrates the position but probably not the way they would have been attached.

    C.W. Clewlow called them transverse points, suggesting that crescents were hafted "crosswise" on either arrow or atlatl thrown spear shafts. The most common theory is that they were used as projectile points to hunt water fowl around the ancient lakes that have produced so many of them. Many crescents are ground at the midpoint on both edges suggesting that they were hafted in the center.

Lunate Crescent from the Black Rock Desert area, Nevada.
PRIVATE COLLECTION

LUNATE CRESCENT

BLACK ROCK DESERT AREA--NEVADA

    This crescent wasn't bifacially flaked. Both sides still retain a large area of the original flake scar from the flake it was made. This crescent was surface collected in the Black Rock Desert area in northwestern Nevada. It measures 1 13/16 inches (4.6 cm) long.

    There is some evidence that crescents were being used to hunt water fowl. Several crescents were found in a deeply buried site on the old shoreline of Buena Vista Lake, California. The stratum was 12.5 feet (380 cm) deep and dated to 6000 B.C. A midden produced food remains of waterfowl species such as stiff-tailed ducks, grebes and coots along with many other animals such as rabbits, deer, turtles, etc.

Lunate Crescent from the Black Rock Desert area, Nevada.
PRIVATE COLLECTION

LUNATE CRESCENT

BLACK ROCK DESERT AREA--NEVADA

   This crescent was surface collected in the Black Rock Desert area in northwestern Nevada. It's fairly thick and has a straighter edge than most examples. The straighter appearance may be due to resharpening. If one end had broken both ends would have needed trimming to bring it back to a symmetrical form.

    Not all crescent-like objects are in fact the type of crescents described in this report. Especially if they are found outside the core area of the ancient lake sites in the far west. One example of this are the 26 Hohokam crescents that are reported from the late Stone Age site of Snaketown. They were found during the excavation of a cremation mound. These crescents are more U-shaped and are about 3/4 of an inch (1.9 cm) long.

Lunate crescent from Wyoming.
STEVE CALIGORE COLLECTION

LUNATE CRESCENT
WYOMING

    This crescent was found in 1965 washed out of a bank on a site in Wyoming. A smaller crescent and a Clovis point were also found on the same site. This crescent measures 11/8 inches (2.7 cm) long.

    Crescents will continue to be a bit of a mysterious until new evidence can prove exactly how they were used. What we do know for sure is that crescents were a highly successful invention. They must have been, because they were in use for over three thousand years.

"REFERENCES"

1938, Gladwin, Harold S., "Excavations At Snaketown, Material Culture," p. 107, plate XCII.
1984, Moratto, Michael J., "California Archaeology," pp. 85, 93, 94 & 499.
1985, Perino, Gregory, "Selected Preforms, Points and Knives of the North American Indians," p. 92.
1990, Gramly, Richard Michael, "Guide to the Paleo-Indian Artifacts of North America," p. 18.
1999, Frison, George & Bradley, Bruce, "The Fenn Cache Clovis Weapons and Tools," p. 34.
2002, Justice, Noel D.,  "Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of California and the Great Basin," pp.116-125.

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