Why so tiny?

[James Riley]

I wish I still had an old "Bird Point" I found in the Owyhee Desert of south west Idaho. I gave it to a Shoshone woman many years ago. I'm pretty sure it would have set the world record as the smallest point ever made. It was perfect in form but you needed a magnifier glass to see it, less than a 1/16th of an inch across. So small, in fact, I bet it got lost but I should try and track her down and see if she still has it. I found a pile of "lithic scatter" where someone had been sitting, making arrowheads. In the pile I found a little Bird Point and kept looking and they kept getting smaller. WAY too small for hunting or decoration, and probably too small for religion (?). I figure it was some guy like me who kept breaking his rock and looked at it as a personal challenge from the rock, swearing he'd make a point out of that rock if it was the last thing he did. He finally did, said "THERE!" in righteous indignation, and then threw it down and went back down to sit in the hot springs. Either that or he was in competition with someone else and threw it away when he was done. I just can't figure out any other reason for it to have been made. It had a point, of course, and then those little "wing-like" corners where the sinew would go and which looked like little points themselves.

Any ideas?

[Indianasmith]

Hard to answer the question without a picture, but I think it would be impossible to flake a point as small as you are describing. I've seen complete bird points that were between 1/4" and 1/2" long, but no smaller.

[CDEAN]

Many Native Americans in the Western US (and some in the Eastern part) believe/believed in "little people". Some say they were the ones who made the extremely tiny points.

[joshuaream]

That would be one of the smallest ones I've seen.


Dan White used to be a member on a couple of forums, he made miniature points. Some of them were as small as the letter and numbers on a coin. You can see his work here.

Unusual Skills and Projects—Dan White

[James Riley]

Thanks, CDEAN. That's a knew one on me. I kind of like (and prefer) that angle myself.

I tried to contact the significant other of the woman I gave the point to, but he has passed. I am trying to track down the woman and pray I can get a good photo of the point, with a measure in the picture. We'll see.

I went and dug through my collection and found a point from the same pile as the one I described. Pictures below. This one is well under a half inch, but this one is huge compared to the one I described and it is not nearly as "well done" (i.e. uniform and pretty). The one I described is about the size of the little non-point corner pieces on this one so I guess it's more like an 1/8th of an inch instead of a 1/6th like I said before. Other than being more detailed and uniform, the little one is made of the same type rock and in the same form as this one. Thanks, all.

[CMD]

Originally Posted by joshuaream

That would be one of the smallest ones I've seen.


Dan White used to be a member on a couple of forums, he made miniature points. Some of them were as small as the letter and numbers on a coin. You can see his work here.

Unusual Skills and Projects—Dan White

That is absolutely amazing! I laughed reading the description of knapping the tiny clovis trying to even imagine such a thing. Cool story too, thanks for sharing that.