More Bifaces Found off US Atlantic Coast

[CMD]

I was looking over the abstracts of the upcoming Paleoamerican Odyssey Conference, which Chase posted about recently in the show section, and I came across an illustration, which shows the Cinmar blade, the "laurel leaf" blade that appears on the cover of "Across Atlantic Ice" and which Stanford and Bradley propose is of Solutrean origin. The illustration shows 4 other bifaces in addition to the Cinmar blade, far left. Since elsewhere in the conference abstracts it is stated that 4 other bifaces have been found by commercial vessels on the continental shelf off the Mid-Atlantic, I surmise that this illustration shows all 5 bifaces found on he continental shelf. Does anyone know any details of these finds?. The illustration accompanies the abstract "North America Before Clovis: Variance in Temporal/Spatial Cultural Patterns" by Collins, Stanford, and Lowery.



The illustration can be found on his page:

http://paleoamericanodyssey.com/abstracts.html

[CMD]

Here is what is believed to be an Early Archaic blade that was found on the Atlantic Coast of RI. Way too frozen for those intrepid Solutreans Nice early flaking. There should be both Late Pleistecene and Early Holocene sites in the waters off the Mid-Atlantic, and if Early Archaic peoples made bi-pointed blades like the one from RI, then interpreting those 5 as Early Archaic seems like a path of much less resistance then suggesting they may be Solutrean. But I would LOVE to know everything I can about these blades. Maybe the folks from our forum who will be attending the conference can fill us in at that time.

[rmartin]

That one is a real beauty! I agree on you theory about the early archaic people.

[painshill]

Hi Charlie
Wish I could get to that conference.
The item labelled “1” in the picture is of course the Cinmar biface, but I believe the others are as yet unpublished.
I think Stanford and his co-workers have been trawling provincial museums and private collections for other examples that support his hypothesis and those four additional bifaces are the result of those efforts. The Cinmar biface, as you know, was also discovered by chance in a similar manner, having been found almost 40 years earlier and loaned by the finder to the Gwynn’s Island Museum, where it sat unnoticed for 7 years.
From the abstract of “The Chesapeake Bifaces: Evidence for an LGM Occupation of the Mid-Atlantic Region of North America?” (Dennis Stanford, Darrin Lowery, Margaret Jodry, Bruce Bradley, Marvin Kay and Robert J. Speakman) which will also be presented at the conference, we have this: “We have located twelve additional laurel leaf specimens including four found by watermen while working on the continental shelf.” Interesting to see what exactly Stanford et al have turned up.

[cgode]

Exciting stuff Charlie! Is that your biface blade? Definitely a subject that is evolving and has my attention!

[CMD]

cgode wrote:

Exciting stuff Charlie! Is that your biface blade? Definitely a subject that is evolving and has my attention!

  No Chris, not my blade

[CMD]

painshill wrote:

Hi Charlie
Wish I could get to that conference.
The item labelled “1” in the picture is of course the Cinmar biface, but I believe the others are as yet unpublished.
I think Stanford and his co-workers have been trawling provincial museums and private collections for other examples that support his hypothesis and those four additional bifaces are the result of those efforts. The Cinmar biface, as you know, was also discovered by chance in a similar manner, having been found almost 40 years earlier and loaned by the finder to the Gwynn’s Island Museum, where it sat unnoticed for 7 years.
From the abstract of “The Chesapeake Bifaces: Evidence for an LGM Occupation of the Mid-Atlantic Region of North America?” (Dennis Stanford, Darrin Lowery, Margaret Jodry, Bruce Bradley, Marvin Kay and Robert J. Speakman) which will also be presented at the conference, we have this: “We have located twelve additional laurel leaf specimens including four found by watermen while working on the continental shelf.” Interesting to see what exactly Stanford et al have turned up.

  Yes, I saw where they now have 12, and I SURMISED that the 4 shown next to the Cinmar Blade are most likely the other 4 found by "watermen", so the illustration shows all 5 such offshore examples out of the 12 total. Since the other 4 are not yet published, do you believe I should delete the actual illustration I posted above??

[painshill]

[QUOTE]CMD wrote:

Hi Charlie
Wish I could get to that conference.
The item labelled “1” in the picture is of course the Cinmar biface, but I believe the others are as yet unpublished.
I think Stanford and his co-workers have been trawling provincial museums and private collections for other examples that support his hypothesis and those four additional bifaces are the result of those efforts. The Cinmar biface, as you know, was also discovered by chance in a similar manner, having been found almost 40 years earlier and loaned by the finder to the Gwynn’s Island Museum, where it sat unnoticed for 7 years.
From the abstract of “The Chesapeake Bifaces: Evidence for an LGM Occupation of the Mid-Atlantic Region of North America?” (Dennis Stanford, Darrin Lowery, Margaret Jodry, Bruce Bradley, Marvin Kay and Robert J. Speakman) which will also be presented at the conference, we have this: “We have located twelve additional laurel leaf specimens including four found by watermen while working on the continental shelf.” Interesting to see what exactly Stanford et al have turned up.

Yes, I saw where they now have 12, and the 5 shown all found by "watermen". Unpublished. OK, Roger do you think I should delete the illustration itself if they are not yet published??


No, I wouldn't delete it. They've put the pic in the public domain to publicise the conference and you're adding to that publicity for them as well as properly crediting where the image came from.

[CMD]

Someone on another site suggesting these blades looked like Boats Blades, which are Transitional/Early Archaic and usually found as mortuary goods. But I decided to check images and came across this. Apparently, one of he 12 bifaces examined by Stanford, et al came from Rhode Island :huh:  hmy:  :dry:  :blink:

http://cart.occpaleo.com/boatsbladepaleobifacecast.aspx

From the above link:

OCCOQUAN PALEOTECHNICS LLC > LITHIC CASTS-PALEOINDIAN PERIOD > Boats Blade Paleo Biface Cast
Boats Blade Paleo Biface Cast
Price: $45.00
Quantity:
This exquisite biface has just been cast by Occpaleo in June 2012.  It measures 6 and half inches long(167mms) and is about 50 mm wide and is only around 5mm thick at the widest point.  It was noticed in a private collection in Rhode Island, by archaeologist Jack Hranicky, a prolific author and expert on point types of the Eastern US.  Being aware of the new theories about a possible Solutrean(coastal Spain/France) origin for the Clovis culture in the East, Hranicky brought this biface to the Smithsonian Museum in June 2012 to be examined there.  This biface shows the same technology of the Cinmar biface, which was showcased in the new book Across Atlantic Ice by Stanford and Bradley.  The Cinmar biface was dredged up 40 miles off the coast of VA, along with mastadon tusks and bones dating over 20,000 years old.  This newly discovered biface from Rhode Island shows the same flaking technique of using edge to edge and overshot flakes to thin the biface, and appears to be of the same technological background.  This newly re-discovered biface is one of the best examples known of the type being studied by archaeologists who are open to the idea of a possible Clovis/Solutrean connection.
Also, I'm in contact with someone who should be able to forward the photos of the black blade found on Potter Pond, a salt pond on RI's Atlantic coast, to Stanford and/or Bradley. It's the black blade shown near the start of this thread.