Ripley P. Bullen, past Florida Museum curator of Florida Archaeology, collected information about Florida projectile points from both avocational and professional archaeologists for decades.

Timeline:

Ripley Bullen working in the field. © Photo courtesy of Florida Museum.
Ripley Bullen working in the field. ©Florida Museum.

Background:

Bullen’s stone tool typology was meant as a starting point to understand the variety of this type of artifact to address archaeological cultural groups through time. It is still one of the most highly used stone tool typologies for Florida. Bullen anticipated that it would be further refined and built upon through the years. Bullen’s typology was first presented in the 1960s and was reprinted in the 1970s due to high demand (Bullen 1975). In the 1990s the actual projectile point type collection was listed on the Florida Museum’s original website and a few images of selected points were displayed. The current website is the complete digital gallery of what has become the Florida Museum’s Bullen Projectile Point Type Collection. The intent of this new digital version is to provide a comparative research tool, increase access visually, and stimulate discussion and continued research of this renowned collection (e.g., Dunbar 2007; Farr 2006; Milanich 1994; Thulman 2007).

Description:

Currently, the type collection is comprised of 620 specimens. This website consists of images of 51 of the 54 types, as three do not have representative examples within the type collection (Union Side Notched, Hardee Beveled, and Broward). While Bullen lists 50 types, the Florida Archaic Stemmed points actually consist of four distinct types (Alachua, Marion, Levy, and Putnam) and the Dalton points consist of two distinct types (Nuckolls and Colbert). Bullen divided a number of types into subtypes; only the following are represented in the digital Bullen Type Collection: Bolen Beveled (5 subtypes), Bolen Plain (5 subtypes), and Duval (3 subtypes). This constitutes a total of 64 types and subtypes (See Explore the Collection by Type or Subtype). Fourteen other types were divided into subtypes by Bullen in the 1975 edition.

Chronology:

These projectile points are broadly grouped by archaeological time periods:

Location:

Bullen points

The 30 counties where the original Bullen projectile points came from are primarily in the northern half of the state. In general, this corresponds to the natural lithic resources (e.g., chert) in the state.

Archaeological evidence supports this distribution, as South Florida sites contain limited stone tools, with shell tools predominating (e.g., Austin 1995, 1996, 1997, 2011; Austin and Estabrook 2000; Simpson 1941; Upchurch 1980; Upchurch, Strom and Nuckels 1981). Upchurch and Strom’s chert collections were donated to the Florida Museum in 1983 and another larger collection of chert from around the state was again donated by Sam Upchurch in 1993. The Upchurch Chert Type Collection is curated in the Florida Archaeology holdings of the Florida Museum.

A brief section on the commonly used terms associated with projectile points is provided (Lithic Terminology).

References

Identify Your Point