A PROJECTILE POINT FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF QUINDIO, COLOMBIA

Abstract

Although it is generally accepted that any early migrations into South America must have passed through the territory of the modern country of Colombia, until a short time ago evidence of a Paleo-Indian occupation in that country was rare and restricted to chance finds. Archaeological investigations on the Caribbean coast, on the Sabana de Bogota, and in the Magdalena Valley have now uncovered a number of early sites, but information on the earliest cultures is still almost completely lacking for most of the country. Nonetheless, a general pattern of northern Andean Paleo-Indian cultures is emerging and a salient characteristic of them all seems to be a lack of stone projectile points. This has been interpreted by not a few as evidence of a well developed preprojectile point stage and presented by others as evidence that the later prehistoric custom of making lances and arrows entirely of wood has great time depth.1