Scanned Artifact Database

Since the early 2000s, I have collected images of chipped stone artifacts (mostly projectile points), mainly from the Southeastern United States. The goals are several fold: (1) preserve the data for future analyses, (2) make images of sometime-hard-to access diagnostic artifacts available to others, and (3) facilitate my own research in artifact shape analysis. ARCO-OP has funded some of this work and agreed to host some of the data.

The images were collected from public institutions and private collections. The latter source is controversial to some archaeologists, but I take a pragmatic approach – the data is there and will be lost forever, so for those who find this data useful and ethical, it is available for use. Working with collectors can be fraught with ethical issues, which are too complex to go into here.

The images were collected on a flatbed scanner and saved at 600 dpi. Sometimes the color is not true. I have about 14,000 images and am slowly cleaning them up and posting them to this site. The images are mostly of Paleoindian and Early Archaic points, although there are some others. If anyone wants copies, contact me. It may take some time to get assemble the data, and a small processing charge will be incurred to cover preparation and mailing. But my ethic is that as scientists, we should share data. These images were time-consuming to collect and come from some obscure sources that are no longer available to professionals. It makes no sense to keep those to myself. I hope that folks who use these images will also share theirs. 

I have the copyright for these images but will make them available for use in professional publications with proper attribution. Please contact me concerning proper attribution; some institutions have specific requirements.  

David K Thulman, Principal Investigator