MIDCONTINENTAL JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 2024, VOL. 49, NO. 3, xxx–xxx CONTACT Michael J. Shott shott@uakron.edu © 2024 Midwest Archaeological Conference ABSTRACT The Central Ohio Archaeological Digitization Survey (COADS) documented large samples of precontact artifacts, notably points, held by private collectors in south-central Ohio, in the United States. COADS captured two-dimensional images of several thousand points and several hundred three- dimensional images. Subjects were processed for landmark- based geometric morphometric (LGM) analysis as entire points and as stems only. Among other things, analysis can test for resharpening allometry—the possibility that preferential resharpening of blades caused change in shape with change in size of points—and related LGM concepts of modularity and integration. This study reports analysis for allometry in early Holocene COADS Thebes and St. Charles points. A clear allometric signal with fairly high modularity resides in the data; blade shape much more than stem shape varies with size, corroborated by independent reduction measures. Separate analysis of stems alone indicated no allometry, as expected since stems vary little with resharpening. Allometry must be considered before attributing variation in midcontinental whole-point shape to adaptation, drift, or other mechanisms. KEYWORDS Thebes points; allometry; modularity; Ohio; reduction; morphometrics Projectile points are a common subject of North American archaeological study. Befitting their popularity, points are informative in many ways. Types mark inter- vals of past time, register activity by their inferred function, and may distinguish social or cultural groups. Their distributions reflect the distribution of populations or cultural groups. Points are superabundant and, in contrast to constructed units like “site,” possess a natural integrity; apart from the breakage many of them ex- perienced, points are integral wholes in the limited sense that their recognition and description require no chain of inference, sometimes elaborate, as do “sites,” “cultures,” and other synthetic units. This is merely to acknowledge that points are real things, irreducible units of observation. Morphometric Analysis of Allometry and Modularity in Early Holocene Thebes and St. Charles Points of Midcontinental North America Michael J. Shott, a Kevin C. Nolan, b and Eric Olson c a Department of Anthropology, University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325; b Applied Anthropology Lab- oratories, Cooper Science, Rm 221C, Ball State University Muncie, IN 47306; c Cuyahoga Community College, 11000 West Pleasant Valley Road, Parma, OH 44130 MCJA 49_3 Shott.indd 1 MCJA 49_3 Shott.indd 1 8/8/24 2:28 PM 8/8/24 2:28 PM