The Stone Tools That Helped Fix The Time

Radiocarbon dating provides the most precise chronological information, but it is not the only tool archaeologists use to understand when a site was occupied.

Stone tools — projectile points, knives, scrapers, and other chipped stone artifacts — change in form over time in ways that archaeologists have documented extensively, creating a typological sequence that can serve as a rough chronological guide.

The Texas Archaic sequence of projectile point types is well established.

Different point forms appear and disappear over time, some lasting only a few centuries, others persisting for longer periods.