Report Details

Investigation of Contracting Stem Points from the Great Basin and West Central Colorado

(2023) Coal Creek Research, Inc.

A geometric morphometric (GMM) study of 332 contracting stem points was carried out using 75 points from four sites in Nevada, 35 points from eleven sites in Utah, and 222 points from west central Colorado. The points were characterized using 180 landmarks. These 180 parameters were then used in Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (AHC) to investigate the similarities between the points from across the Great Basin and west central Colorado. This analysis indicates that three shapes are statistically evenly dispersed across the whole area.

However, one shape is statistically predominate in Nevada and one shape is statistically predominate in west central Colorado. Unfortunately, the point shape from west central Colorado cannot be placed in the chronology of contracting stem points in the Great Basin (4000-3000 BP), since no contracting stem points of this shape occurs in any dated, excavated site in west central Colorado.

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  Investigation of Contracting Stem Points from the Great Basin and West Central Colorado — (2023) Coal Creek Research, Inc.