Projectile point · Middle Archaic
Humboldt
5000–1000 BCE, Desert Archaic
Humboldt was defined by Heizer and Clewlow in 1968 from the Humboldt Lakebed site in Nevada and is a long-lived Great Basin lanceolate spanning the Middle and Late Archaic. Thomas's Monitor Valley work reduced the series to Concave Base and Basal-notched variants. Obsidian and chert are the usual materials.
| Object | Projectile point |
|---|---|
| Dates | 5000–1000 BCE |
| Period | Middle Archaic |
| Cultures | Desert Archaic |
| Regions | North America — Great Basin & Plateau |
Diagnostic traits
Unshouldered lanceolate with a concave base, unground edges and a lenticular section; the basal-notched variant has a deeper, narrower basal indentation.
Identification
Humboldt lacks the shoulders of Pinto and Gatecliff and the grinding and fine flaking of Paleoindian lanceolates. Cascade is a bipoint with no basal concavity.
Reproductions and fakes
Rarely reproduced; genuine obsidian examples show hydration sheen and desert varnish.
Cite this article
Stratum Strata. "Humboldt" (Artifact type). Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/strata/types/humboldt. Accessed 2026-09-21.
@misc{stratum-humboldt,
title = {Humboldt},
author = {{Stratum Strata}},
howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/strata/types/humboldt}},
year = {2026},
note = {Artifact type article, Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
} Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.