Abstract
Along California's central coast, projectile points representing the central coast stemmed series were the dominant bifacial form for over 5000 years. Archaeologists working in the region are accustomed to referring to these artifacts as "dart points" and to later small leaf-shaped points as "arrow points," even though these functional inferences remain untested. We use macro-morphometric and microscopic use-wear data to argue that both assumptions may be incorrect. We also suggest that the multifunctional nature of stemmed series points contributed to their longevity and conditioned the choice to replace them with more specialized forms. More broadly, we argue that functional analyses of stone tools greatly expand the potential information yield from this artifact class and increase its relevance to issues of foraging efficiency and technological evolution.