Cueva Fell - Artefacts

Artefacts

The first excavation of Fell’s cave in 1936 yielded 511 artefacts. These included hafted implements, knives, scrapers, bolas, a couple of circular rubbing stones, and bone tools.

Distribution of Artefacts from Fell's Cave (1936)
Group	Category	Surface Layer	Layer I	Layer II	Layer III	Layer IV	Layer V	Total
Hafted Implements	Ona-type arrow point	-	13	2	-	-	-	15
	Patagonian-type arrow point	1	11	5	1	-	-	18
	Small, triangular arrow point	-	2	-	1	-	-	3
	Small, rudimentary stem	-	1	-	-	-	-	1
	Old-type, triangular point	-	-	2	20	2	-	24
	Triangular, concave base	-	1	1	2	-	1	5
	Fishtail point	-	-	-	-	-	15	15
	Hafted knife	-	12	5	2	-	-	19
	Hafted knife, questionable	-	5	2	-	-	-	7
Knives	Thin, single-edge	-	1	-	2	-	-	3
	3-sided	-	-	possibly 2	1	1	-	4
	?, concave base, broad, thin	-	-	1	-	-	-	1
	Fragment (uncertain)	-	-	-	-	-	3	3
	Combination knife-scraper	-	-	1	2	-	-	3
Scrapers	Single-edge, rough flake	11	45	59	36	25	26	202
	2-edge, large	3	2	2	-	2	1	10
	2-edge, narrow	-	4	11	1	6	-	22
	2 points	-	-	-	-	-	2	2
	Large, rough, circular edge	-	-	1	2	2	6	11
	Reversed-edge	-	1	-	-	-	1	2
	End	-	-	-	-	-	6	6
	Small, hafted	13	26	51	9	-	-	99
	Unfinished blank	-	1	-	6	1	-	8
Bolas	Deep groove, flat ends	-	1	-	-	-	-	1
	Unfinished	-	-	-	1	-	-	1
	Spherical, fragment	-	1	-	-	-	-	1
	Lemon-shaped, fragment	-	-	1	-	-	-	1
	Circular rubbing stone	-	-	-	-	-	2	2
Bone Implements	Chipping tool	-	12	6	-	-	-	18
	Bird bone awl	-	-	1	-	-	-	1
	Solid bone awl	-	1	-	-	-	-	1
	Lance point	-	-	-	-	1	-	1
	Bead	-	1	-	-	-	-	1
	Totals	28	141	153	86	40	63	511

Perhaps the most significant find in the 1936 excavation was the fishtail projectile point. All of the fishtail points were associated with large mammals including: extinct horses, giant ground sloths, and guanacos. Fifteen fishtail projectile points were recovered from Layer V which is the oldest layer that dates back to 11,000 RCYBP +-170 top 10,080 RCYBP +-160. These fishtail point have been radiocarbon dated to ca. 11,000 years.

Discoidal stones, referred in the chart as circular rubbing stones, were also found. Bird notes in a 1970 journal article that “stone artefacts shaped by pecking and grinding are so generally absent among Paleo-Indian finds that exceptions are noteworthy”. There were two stones found in Cueva Fell; both of them were clearly associated with animal remains. Both were made from lava. The larger stone has a diameter of about 12.3 cm and weighs about 1.12 kg while the smaller stone is about 8.4 cm in diameter and weighs about 0.5 kg. There was also a substantial amount of scrapers found throughout all the Cueva Fell layers. The bone tools found, according to Bird, were made from sloth bone because there bone used showed no evidence of marrow cavities.

In 1969 there was a second dig organized at Cueva Fell but it was focused in a slightly different location of the cave. During this excavation 415 artefacts were found including: various points, knives, scrapers, cores, bolas, and bones tools.

Artefacts from Fell's Cave Excavated in 1969 and 1970
Group	Category	Area D	Area C and D	Total
Points	Ona, small, barbed	9	-	9
	Small, triangular	1	-	1
	Unidentified, fragment	1	-	1
	Patagonian, stemmed	7	9	16
	Spear	1	1	2
	Old-type, stemless, triangular	-	16	16
	Fishtail	-	1	1
Knives	Hafted	1	-	1
	Knife or spear	-	2	2
	Small, leaf-shaped	-	1	1
	Single edge (from flake)	2	3	5
	3-edge	-	2	2
	Combination knife-scraper	1	2	3
Scrapers	Rough, single-edge flake	26	103	129
	2-edge, large	2	13	15
	2-edge, narrow (parallel)	1	1	2
	2 points	1	-	1
	2 sides to point	1	4	5
	1-edge (like 2-edge)	31	47	78
	1-sided, rounded end	-	5	5
	Large, circular	-	12	12
	End	3	8	11
	Reversed 2-edge	1	-	1
	Hafted	32	23	55
	Fragment, uncertain, misc.	2	9	11
	Blank	-	9	9
	Cores	1	4	5
	Bolas	1	3	4
Bone Tools	Chipping tool	2	1	3
	Bird bone awl	-	3	3
	Solid point awl	1	1	2
	Bonce lance point	-	3	3
	Spear thrower contact point	-	1	1
	Total	130	285	415