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KIMBERLEY POINTS
LATE STONE AGE
NORTHWESTERN AUSTRALIA
EST. A.D. 500 TO EUROPEAN CONTACT
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COPYRIGHT MARCH 31, 2004 PETER A. BOSTROM
8 Kimberley points laying on large Hixton biface.
GLASS AND STONE KIMBERLEY SPEAR POINTS

   This picture shows 4 stone and 4 glass Kimberley points from northwestern Australia. They are laying on a large Hixton quartzite biface from Wisconsin.

Kimberley points abstract banner.
KIMBERLEY SPEAR POINTS
A.D. 500 TO EUROPEAN CONTACT
NORTHWESTERN AUSTRALIA

   This article illustrates and describes a group of Kimberley points that were collected in 1910 in the Kimberley region of Northwestern Australia. The points made of glass are reported to have been collected at Point George IV. Kimberley points are leaf shaped, serrated and bifacially flaked spear points. They began to be made sometime after A.D. 500 and continued to be made until and long after European contact.

   "Many pre-historians judge the bifacially flaked Kimberley point to be Australia's most aesthetically appealing type of stone implement."---1999, John Mulvaney & Johan Kamminga, p.238.
   
"Kimberley point manufacture required more skill than that needed for making any other stone tool type in Australia."---1999, John Mulvaney & Johan Kamminga, p.239.
    "The missionary J.R.B. Love remarked that 'spearhead making is the most constant employment of the men'---it was a tribal craft."---1999, John Mulvaney & Johan Kamminga, p.239.

Seven Kimberley points.
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGE IMAGE

KIMBERLEY
SPEAR POINTS

    Kimberley points are Australia's most famous flaked stone artifacts. They were named after the semi-arid northwest region called the Kimberley Plateau. The aboriginal people living there made the first examples sometime between A.D. 500 and AD. 1000. They continued to be made until European contact and as tourists items in recent times.

A gray quartzite Kimberley point.
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGE TRIPLE IMAGE

KIMBERLEY SPEAR POINT
LATE STONE AGE
NORTHWESTERN AUSTRALIA
PETE BOSTROM COLLECTION

   This Kimberley spear point was collected in northwestern Australia at Point George IV in 1910. It is bifacially flaked. The edges are serrated and it has a very sharp needle-like point. This point is made of gray quartzite and it measures 2 3/16 inches (5.5 cm) long. 

    Kimberley points are projectile points that were attached to the ends of spears on foreshafts. The foreshafts measure between (3 feet 3 inches to 4 feet 11 inches ( 1 and 1.5 meters) long and the spear shaft measured between 4 feet 11 inches to 6 feet 7 inches ( 1.5 and 2 meters) long. The point was hafted into a notch with resin that was usually obtained from porcupine grass. The resin was heated and applied for several centimeters down the foreshaft. No other hafting material was used.

CONTINUE ON TO PAGE TWO

"REFERENCES"

1949, Mitchell, S.R., "Stone-Age Craftsmen, Stone Tools & Camping Places of the Australian Aborigines" pp. 62-64.
1963, Tindale, Norman B. & Lindsay, H.A., "Aboriginal Australians", pp. 36-37.
1999, Mulvaney, John & Kamminga, Johan, "Prehistory of Australia," pp.89, 95, 238-241.
2000, Moore, Mark, "Chips Vol. 12 #3, "Kimberley Spear Points of Northwestern Australia," pp. 5-17.

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