Fishtail projectile points from South America: the Brazilian record

Abstract

The projectile points known as Fishtail or Fell represent a specific design associated with the earliesthunter-gatherers of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in South America. Brazil was traditionallyconsidered as a marginal area of their distribution because in the past there were only asmall number of findings known, often inadequately documented. In this paper we present a generaland unified overview of the Brazilian record, including previously unpublished metric, technologicaland stylistic features. Also, we report on new findings of fishtail points in order to expandthe amount of information currently available. Some issues related to these records are alsoevaluated by comparing them with data from the Uruguayan plains and the Argentinean pampas.The general picture that emerges after this analysis shows a growing record of fishtail projectilepoints in southern Brazil, demonstrating a significant presence of these early paleo-South Americanpopulations.