Archaeological Culture: Paleoindian, Cody Complex

Geographical Range: The Great Plains from southern Canada to New Mexico; few Southwest and Great Basin locations, including isolated points in Arizona, a camp in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, and to the north, sites along the Snake River Plain corridor.

Date Range: 10,000 – 8000 B.P. (Muniz 2005).

Size:  Average: 60 mm long, 19.4 mm wide, and 6.1 mm thick; stem length: 15.3; stem width: 17.6 (Dello-Russo et al. n.d.: Table 1); Range: 71-155 mm long, 13-19 mm wide (Justice 1995:243).

Shape: Narrow-stemmed lanceolate, with parallel lateral margins, small square shoulders, pronounced median ridge, and near perfect symmetry; stem is straight and square.

Cross-section: Diamond-shaped.

Base: Straight; occasionally eared.

Flaking: Serial pressure; well-controlled and designed to create the median ridge on the point. Flake removals are symmetrical, with each flake removed from a side matched by one removed from the opposite edge.

Grinding
May be present on the lateral margins of the stem to the shoulder.

Materials: Chert, chalcedony, porcellanite, quartzite, silicified wood.

Other Names: Eden Valley Yuma, Eden Eared, Hixton, Cody. Muniz (2005) and others include Albert points as early variants of the Cody Complex, which includes Eden and Scottsbluff points.

Comparisons: Scottsbluff points are less well-made, with soft-hammer percussion scars and slightly expanding stems. Other Paleoindian lanceolate points typically lack square shoulders and stems.

Compiled from the following sources:
Dello-Russo, Robert, James Moore, and Gavin Bird (n.d.). Photographic and Metric Documentation of Early Diagnostic Artifacts from the Bockman Collection (link opens in new window).

Justice, Noel D. (1995) Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of the Midcontinental and Eastern United States. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.

Justice, Noel D. (2002) Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of the Southwestern United States. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.

Muniz, Mark Peter. (2005) The Cody Complex Revisited: Landscape Use and Technological Organization on the Northwestern Plains. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado.

Compiled by:
Meghann M. Vance, Northern Arizona University Anthropology Laboratories