KENT, OHIO—The International Business Times reports that researchers from Kent State University, Southern Methodist University, the University of Tulsa, Rogers State University, and Texas A&M University employed computer models and made test specimens in order to evaluate Clovis weapons technologies. They tested re-created points with and without “fluting,” a flint knapping technique thought to have been developed by Clovis hunters, where a thin groove is chipped from the base and both sides of a stone point. The process can make a point more brittle, and as many as 20 percent of the points may break, but the researchers found that fluting can also make the point better able to absorb the shock of hitting a hard object, such as the rib of a large game animal. The team members argue that fluting points was worth the time and effort because Clovis hunters would have been able to retrieve and reuse their engineered points while exploring new territory. To read more about Clovis points, go to “Destination: The Americas.”
