Projectile point · Late Archaic
Orient Fishtail
1200–700 BCE, Archaic (Eastern)
Orient Fishtail is the Terminal Archaic point of Long Island, coastal New York, Connecticut and the lower Hudson, named by Ritchie for the Orient sites at the eastern tip of Long Island where they came from cremation burials with steatite vessels. It marks the end of the broadspear sequence and overlaps the earliest Vinette pottery, with dates of about 1200–700 BCE. Most are made from quartz, quartzite, chert or jasper and are small, so the type is common but rarely expensive.
| Object | Projectile point |
|---|---|
| Dates | 1200–700 BCE |
| Period | Late Archaic |
| Cultures | Archaic (Eastern) |
| Regions | North America — Eastern Woodlands |
Diagnostic traits
Narrow, lanceolate to lozenge-shaped blade with sloping rounded shoulders and a short expanding stem whose slightly concave base gives a fishtail outline.
Identification
The flared fishtail base and rounded shoulders separate Orient from Susquehanna Broad, its ancestor, which is much broader with angular shoulders; Dry Brook is a transitional form between them. Small stemmed quartz points of the Small Stemmed tradition lack the flared base.
Reproductions and fakes
Rarely reproduced; genuine examples in quartz are hard to fake but chert ones should show patina inside the notches.
Elsewhere
- Wikidata: Q138715082
Cite this article
Stratum Study. "Orient Fishtail" (Artifact type). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/study/types/orient-fishtail. Accessed 2026-09-21.
@misc{stratum-orient-fishtail,
title = {Orient Fishtail},
author = {{Stratum Study}},
howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/types/orient-fishtail}},
year = {2026},
note = {Artifact type article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum, wikidata, commons. 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.