Excavation Sites

• Arrowhead excavation sites in and near Montana included bison kill areas where hunters trapped buffalo then killed them with bows and arrows. Archeololgists Thomas Kehoe, Bruce McCorquodale and H.P. Lewis found Avonlea arrowhead tips near Conrad in Montana's northwestern plains. Identical arrowheads were found 70 miles north of the Montana site in Saskatchewan, Canada, indicating the size and migratory patterns of the tribe or tribes that used them.
  
  

Triangular Shapes

• Most arrowheads excavated in Montana have heads that are shaped like triangles. Most have stemmed edges. Their bases included straight, convex and concave forms. These include the Alberta, the Archaic Knife, the side-notched and triangular Archaic, the Samantha arrow and dart, Prairie Side-Notched, Scottsbluff, Lookingbill, Hanna, Cody, the Avonlea Carmichael, Gulllake and Timber Ridge, the Glendo arrow and dart, Irvine, Duncan, Hawken, Buffalo Gap, Bitter Root, Paskapoo, Cut Bank, Pelican Lake, Billings, Yonkee, Nanton, Pekisko, Hog Back, Simonsen, Northern Side Notched, Plains knife, Browns Valley, Tompkins, Mallory, Oxbow High River, Billings, Stott, Lewis, Besant and Swiff Current. The Frederick and Emigrant are different, with bifurcated bases.
  
  

Lanceolate Shapes

• Lanceolate-shaped arrowheads are the second most prevalent excavated in Montana. Lanceolate heads begin with an ovoid- or leaf-shaped tip and descend into a straight, rectangle shape like a lance or spear. Most have concave bases. These include the Lovell, Alder, Allen, fluted and unfluted Clovis, McKean, Green River, the Angostura long points, Pryor, Hell Gap, Goshen, Midland and Folsom. The Firstview and Milnesand arrowheads are unique lanceolates because they have straight bases.
  
  

Rare Finds

• Montana arrowheads with ovoid or leaf shapes are the rarest and only include the Agate Basin tip. The Agate Basin carbon dates to the archaic Paleolithic period from 9500 to 8500 BC. It has leaf-like notches along the edges and the base is straight to convex. Other Montana arrowhead rarities are the fan-shaped tip termed the Scraper, the completely rectangular Square Knife and the pointy Paleo Knife and Drill.