Fishtail Technology: Archaeological and Experimental Evidence

This paper proposes a hypothetical reconstruction of Fishtail point production and expected byproducts based on extensive replication compared to original Fishtail points, which elucidates hitherto unknown aspects of Fishtail technology. The sample of Uruguay's Fishtail points presents exceptional conditions to carry out this research; there is a large sample of complete points in a relatively small region of South America, from the selection of raw material to those that underwent an intense process of maintenance, revival, and recycling. Our results show that the Fishtail point production process was very complex and sophisticated like Clovis, involved a high level of flaking expertise, and produced diagnostic byproducts that should be identifiable in the archaeological record. We distinguish and define different flaking techniques (diving, overlapping, comedial, full-face, etc.) used to manufacture Fishtail points. Unlike Clovis, the preferred bifacial thinning technique was diving flaking.