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Solutreans in Rhode Island?!?!

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  • Solutreans in Rhode Island?!?!

    I posted this at the end of the "More Bifaces Found" thread. Now listen, I know mention Solutrean here and all heck can break loose.
    But we're all past that, right Anyway, just posting this because I'm amazed to discover one of the 12 bifaces included by Stanford et all is from right here in my home state of RI, which seems impossible even within the context of the theory, but it's a nice blade!
    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.
    Courtesy of this website:
    Rhode Island

  • #2
    I showed this piece in the "more bifaces on continental shelf" thread. It sold at a Hesse Gallery auction for less then $130. Found in South Kingstown, RI near a salt pond with an outlet to the Atlantic. I imagine this probably would be seized upon as #13 if it were known to Stanford, et al. It isn't known to them far as I know. I'm in contact with someone who should be able to forward photos of this piece to Stanford and/or Bradley.


    Rhode Island

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    • #3
      More images of the known RI example of the 12 possibilities known to Stanford and Bradley, again from this web page:



      Rhode Island

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      • #4
        It was either found in Providence or found in a Providence collection. Here is Jack Hranicky's website, with another photo and mention that these are usually called Boats Blades by collectors, after the Boats Site in Ma., where such blades were found in a mortuary context. Boats blades date Transitional Archaic/Early Woodland. This is the one Hranicky brought to the Smithsonian for comparison to the Cinmar,, but as he notes here, bipoints were manufactured throughout American prehistory.

        On another forum, a member very knowledgeable with Paleo studies felt all the examples shown illustrated in the abstract for the Paleoamerican Odyssey conference(see "continental shelf bifaces" thread), were more like Boats blades then anything Solutrean.
        If the Providence specimen is a Boats Blade, then why not the Cinmar?
        Rhode Island

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        • #5

          This one, on the other hand, was found on a pond south of the Charlestown portion of the moraine seen and described here:

          Figure 4. Location of end moraines (black polygons) and submarine ridges (dashed lines) in southern New York and New England (modified from Gustavson and Boothroyd, 1987) and location of study area (gray polygon). The Ronkonkoma-Nantucket end moraine represents the maximum advance of the Laurentide Ice Sheet about 20,000 years ago and the Harbor Hill-Roanoke Point-Charlestown-Buzzards Bay end moraine represents a retreated ice-sheet position from about 18,000 years ago (Uchupi and others, 1996).
          So the earliest this point might have been lost was 18,000 years ago?  Sorry for the one person conversation. This is all just for the record.
          I'm not suggesting this point is that old, I'm simply beginning to realize it really is the style the Solutrean hypothesis researchers are focused on.  I have no idea what it is or how old it is. I have not seen enough Boats Blades to know if this type of flaking is typical. But perhaps this is a Boats Blade as well.
          Map and caption is from USGS:

          Rhode Island

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          • #6
            the flaking IMO looks to be oblique, typical of an early piece

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            • #7
              I contacted Jack Hranicky yesterday, the author of a study of NA bipoints.  A link to his site is above. Also heard from a member of the ASAA, and he is forwarding the photos of the black blade to Bruce Bradley, co-author of Across Atlantic Ice. However, unless or until I can track the piece down, and I emailed the most recent owner I was aware of, then it's only photos. It has also been pointed out to me that the piece may just be a good fake.
              Rhode Island

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              • #8
                Check out my post "Pre-Clovis in Central North Carolina". I found two items which I think are Laurel Leaf/ Bipoints. Let me know what you think.

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