To put things into perspective, there was a tremendous shift with the advent of the archaic era.
Basically, the advent of the archaic era forced people to become super duper specialists, wherever they were at. The had to learn to extract everything they needed to survive, from their immediate surroundings. As a result, they had to develop many sophisticated processes needed in order to live, in one area. For example, they developed stone mortars, and other items, that enabled them to eke out an existence, in various regions.
What makes it more complex is that in some areas - such as the Great Basin - food was highly seasonal, with up to twelve seasons in a year. So, people had to learn to cycle through food sources, every so many weeks, simply to keep going. And, all of this took specialized knowledge that only was applicable certain areas.
Until that time, quite a few paleo points were known far and wide, or were known within certain probable migratory ranges. But, with the specialization of the archaic came a specialization of point types. One also sees signs of settled life, with the appearance of settlements, during the archaic era.
The shift from paleo types to archaic types may have reflected a shift from one lifestyle to another, and a shift in lithic materials selected. In other words, people who lived settled lives, may have been more prone to employing stone found in their respective region. Also, the shifts could reflect differences in hafting strategies.
Afterwards, the development of the bow and arrow would have involved further specialization of point types, that reflected different types of hafting, etc.
What is not so clear is the status of knives, during these eras, and transitions of eras. Shafer offers the opinion that the Lerma was never a projectile point, but rather a knife. The Hasket tradition, to the far north, may have been a knife tradition. And, there could have been knife traditions in between the Lerma of Mexico, and the Haskett of the Great Basin.
Probably the best way to look at this is to place projectile point typologies side by side, with dates in sequence, and then see where there was common ancestry, and the look at what spun off of the common ancestry, with the advent of the archaic era. Beyond that, one could track the development of lithic styles, with the retreat of the Northern Ice Shield, to see at what point in time - and where - did subsequent northern variants appear.
More banned knowledge from the chronically banned flintknapper, LOL.
Ancient Tech
