Broke slate bayonet

[Mainejman]

I've posted this before but was wondering if anybody in the New York state area has ever come across banded slate like this...This was found on a RedPaint site and is the end of a ground slate hexagonal bayonet...notice the grooves ground in the handle...mjm

[Mainejman]

[searchinghawk]

i have few broken ulu frags on an early archaic site that produced bifurcates and kirks and others,,kennebec river

[Jethro355]

A). It looks cold outside there.

b) cool piece, but if it’s a bayonet...what were they affixing it to?

I'm guessing that slate is soft-ish? It looks like it would be real easy to work smooth....

[Mainejman]

Seven degrees this morning...they call them bayonet like Lance blades.???Yes smooth and easy for them to grind into shape...Got a few pieces of bayonets and their workmanship with slate is unbelievable...the edges are as straight and true as can be accomplished with modern knife manufacturing...

[Jethro355]

Thank you for that explanation...because I’m trying to imagine an Indian lashing that thing to the end of his Bow for the close combat situations...🤔

[pkfrey]

It's hard to see, but I think the slate isn't to unusual. It's one of the several color phases slate comes in. And slate isn't always banded like we see in bannerstones, gorgets, etc. Sometimes it's a solid red, green, black,brown, and even a bluish/gray without any banding. Actually, banded slate is rare for these maritime/Red Ochre blades and ulus. I had a frame of these, all from N.Y., from the old Harry Schoff collection. I don't remember if I ever posted those. If I didn't, here are the three I acquired. If I did, here they are again. Typical notches in the blade, thin, uniform and sharp! These are all Cayuga Co., N.Y.

[CMD]

There were actually two Archaic traditions that manufactured ground slate points:

"Archaeologists working in the Maritime Peninsula recognize two distinctive Late Archaic cultural traditions. One tradition is primarily a coastal marine adaptation that probably developed in situ from the Middle Archaic population. This population was originally referred to as the "Red Paint" people, because of their extensive use of red ochre in burials (Sanger 1979; Willoughby 1935). Warren K. Moorehead (1922) and his excavation crew, the "Force," traveled extensively in northern Maine and western New Brunswick in search of Red Paint cemeteries. Today some authors link this group to the northern Maritime Archaic Tradition (Tuck 1975, 1991), while others associate them with the Moorehead Phase (Bourque 1995). The second tradition is the interior adapted Laurentian Archaic tradition, which is considered to an extension of the Late Archaic culture of the Lower Great Lakes and Upper St. Lawrence Valley region (Wright 1997).

The geographical boundary between the interior and coastal populations is difficult to define, because the two cultural traditions had a number of common tool forms. In particular, the Laurentian assemblages in the area include ground slate points and semilunar knives (ulus), as well as bone points. These tools are believed to appear first in coastal Archaic areas. The assemblages of coastal sites often include projectile points and spearthrower weights that are more diagnostic of interior or more southern archaeological cultures. Another problem in defining cultural boundaries is the relative lack of archaeological research in the interior versus coastal areas of Maine and New Brunswick."

The above quote is taken from this lecture:

http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~mdeal/Anth3291/notes4.htm

I have a ground slate point from Providence, with the commonly seen notches in the stem. Because it was found here, I would just presume it's not the Moorehead Phase, or "Red Paint", but rather the Laurentian Archaic Tradition. Ground slate points, for instance, are commonly found on sites containing Otter Creek points. The Laurentian Tradition is probably better focused in New York, but Otter Creek points and points from the Brewerton series are common enough here in southern New England. Here is the ground slate point found in Providence Co., Rhode Island:




Again, because of where this point was found, I would just assume its more likely the Laurentian Tradition then Northern Maritime Archaic Tradition, or the Moorehead Phase of coastal Maine. Both groups produced very similar ground slate projectiles. One was adopted to a maritime focus, the other developed in the interior....

[Mainejman]

Most of my slate is black...but I have a banded slate gouge and the piece I posted was brown and banded and I have another banded piece of bayonet...also one point that is bleached pure white...well CMD maybe I'm not in a RedPaint site but a Laurentian site...

[pkfrey]

I think the term Red Paint, or Red Ochre Culture is loosely applied and maybe should be generic, and really isn't a separate or distinct culture. I don't think you can really define the term Red Ocher as pertaining to a specific culture from a specific area or time frame. The term is only used to define those groups who used red ochre, or powdered hematite, in their burials. Red Ochre is known to be used as far back as some Neanderthal graves, and Cro-Magnon. Would they then be considered part of the Red Ochre Culture? I think the term is more of a cultural " trait ", and can be applied to people from Paleo ( red ochre has been noted for Folsom and Clovis sites ), to Late Archaic, but there is a time line when Native Americans stopped using this " trait " in their burials. I don't know how we take two slate points, and say one is from the Red Paint/Ochre Culture, and one is from the Laurentian Archaic, or Maritime Archaic. Just a thought.

[CMD]

I agree completely with what Paul is saying regarding red ochre and its usage in many times and places. But, just to clarify, I was not suggesting one slate point is from the "Red Paint" culture, and one from the Laurentian Tradition. I was suggesting that, as Bruce Borque suggests, that the Moorehead Phase on the coast of Maine was part of a maritime adoptation, swordfish hunters, whereas the Archaic traditions at the same time in the interior regions were not maritime people, but employed a different adoptation, Mast Forest Archaic was the term used by Dean Snow, as one suggestion for the interior of the Northeast, for instance. And the Laurentian Tradition was a part of that interior adoptation. Like Paul, I'm not separating these people by the use of red ochre. They both used it, but the Moorehead Phase in Maine, where the slate bayonet in this thread was found, may have been, as Bourque believes, very unique.

Bourque believes the Moorehead Phase was quite unique, but with trade and contact to the north, south, and west. I used to believe, if I found a ground slate artifact in RI, for instance, that it must be from the so-called "Red Paint People", thinking that the Maritime Archaic was present here in RI somehow. But that is not necessarily the case at all. Rather, its more likely to be associated with the Laurentian Tradition when found here. Red paint, or red ochre burials are found in the Narragansett drainage. But that does not mean those are burials of the Maritime Archaic, or the Moorehead Phase. So, what I was saying is that people of the Maritime Archaic used ground slate, and people of the Mast Forest Archaic used slate as well. I think, correct me if I am mistaken, that that was the point being made in the lecture I quoted from earlier. I fully agree that calling the Maritime Archaic or Moorehead Phase the "Red Paint People" is misleading, especially if it leads one to believe the use of red ochre in burials was somehow unique to these people. It was notable, but hardly unique.

We can be certain that Bourque, although he prefers calling these maritime peoples of Maine the "Red Paint People", himself understands the use of red ochre in their burials was not unique to them. The presence of ochre stained bayonets, on the other hand, in burials of the Moorehead Phase, bayonets which he believes were modeled after swordfish bills, was perhaps unique among the ground slate artifacts of the Northeast.

So, all and all, I think I was simply suggesting that if I find a ground slate projectile in interior New York, it does not mean that people of the Maritime Archaic made that point. But contact was certainly occurring, and the forms are so similar, that a common origin is likely, perhaps. For that matter, very similar ground slate projectiles are found throughout circumpolar regions. In Scandinavia for instance. The old Nova episode, "Secrets of the Lost Red Paint People", which I've posted to the forum in the past, showed the sometimes startling similarity of artifacts between these cultures located on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Indeed, at one time, some archaeologists subscribed to a belief in a so-called circumpolar culture to explain this similarity in material culture and shamanic practices.

[Scorpion68]

Hey guys - This is one helluva education going on here. I've heard of slate artifacts like bayonet points but had never really seen one until now. There are slate quarries all over this area and huge slabs are hauled out every day. I've even sorted through slate refuse piles looking for fossils but never considered slate hard enough for points and such. Can it hold a sharp edge? After reading all this I can see it being used especially for spear fishing but for game larger animals, not so much. Again - I'm learning from this and find it quite enlightening. MJM and Charlie - thanks for the exchange of information. You to Paul for stirring the pot and bringing out more discussion. What a site!!!

[Mainejman]

Just when I thought I had it figured out...lol.. There sure seems like alot of variables and over lapping of tool and point design...I was hoping I could distinguish them from other artifacts found...I do find alot of plummets that Bourque's says were pretty much out of the picture after the Morehead phase..mjm

[Mainejman]

Scorpion68....here is some slate points and pieces of a bayonet that I have pieced together.They don't go together but will give you some idea what we're working with...also there's a bottom piece of bayonet that they have rounded the end and repurposed...mjm

[Mainejman]

The slate are on the second row on the bottom left pretty hard to miss...mjm

[Mainejman]

[Mainejman]

Pieced together bayonet