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Paleo Points (General)

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  • Paleo Points (General)

    A Gallery of Paleo Points
    Originally published in the Central States Archaeological Journal, Vol.57, No.1, pg.32


    Three fine Ohio Paleo points. The 3 inch Cumberland on the left was originally owned by Dr. Stanley Copeland. It is made from Onondaga flint, which outcrops in New York. The 4 ½ inch Clovis in the middle is made from a high grade of Dover flint. The Clovis on the far right is 3 5/8 inches in length and made from a variety of Flint Ridge. Len and Janie Weidner Collection, Westerville, Ohio



    Above: Both sides of an interesting 4 ¼ inch long fluted Clovis knife. This was found in an Ohio field by Larry Garvin and his son Chance on May 15th, 2001. Larry Garvin Collection, Zanesville, Ohio



    Above: These points are from Southwest and Northeast Oklahoma. Pictured in the group are Clovis, Folsom, Cody, Dalton, Plainview and Allen Culture types represented. The materials are from around Oklahoma and neighboring states, includ*ing Alibates, Tecovas, Frisco, Boone, and Frisco Cherts. The largest point is the Clovis, right at 4 inches.
    Top Row- Folsom, Marshall Co.; Dalton, Pontotoc Co., Frisco; Cody Knife, Marsall Co., Woodford; Plainview, Tulsa Co., Boone; Milnesand, Tulsa Co. Second Row- Plainview, Washita Co., Alibates; Holland, Washita Co., Alibates; Red River Knife, Tulsa Co., Boone; Plainview, Caddo Co., Tecovas; Scottsbluff, Marshall Co., Edwards Bottom Row-Allen, Kay Co.; Mahafey, Haskell Co.; Clovis, McCurtain Co.; Midland, Kay Co.; San Patrice, Caddo Co.
    Chris Merriam Collection,Norman, Oklahoma



    Above: Two Clovis points personally found in Tennessee by Steven Jordan. The point on the left was found in 1993 in Houston County and measures 4 1/8 inches. The point on the right was found in 1996 in Davidson County and shows evidence of three multiple flutes on one side. With this point was some wood that was carbon dated to 11,600B.P. Collection of Steven Jordan, Shelbyville, Tennessee



    Above left: Joel Watson found this fine Clovis in Trigg County near Lake Barkley on September 20th 2008. It is made from Dover Flint and measures 4 ¼ inches. Joel Watson Collection, Calvert Cigs Kentucky
    Above center: A rare Clovis from the state of Mississippi. This Clovis measures 4 ½ inches and was found in Tishomingo County by Ryan Ford in the 1930's.Len and Janie Weidner Collection, Westerville, Ohio
    Above right: Keith Couch found this 3 ¾ inch Clovis made from a colorful Sonora Flint on a creek in Lyon County, Kentucky in January 2009. A huge ice storm struck shortly after and today the creek is covered with debris and totally inaccessible. Keith Couch Collection, Calvert City Kentucky



    Above: Clovis point found by William E. (Bill) Pope in a tobacco field in Orange County, North Carolina near the town of Cedar Grove. The point was given to his grandson, Barry L. Pope, in 1964 and was the first point in his collection. It is made from a molted gray flint and is 1 7/8 inches long. Barry Pope Collection, Cary North Carolina


    Used by permission of the publisher
    To learn more about or to join the Central States Archaeological Society, click here: http://www.csasi.org/
    I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.

  • #2
    One of Just Three: An Extremely Rare Paleo Projectile Point from Georgia
    J Steven Beasley, Marietta, Georgia
    Originally published in the Central States Archaeological Journal, Vol.57, No.1, pg.15




    In the 1980's on the Etowah River in Bartow County Georgia, I found a small Cumberland Point. The projectile is three inches in length, fluted to the tip on both sides and made from Ft. Payne chert. Surprisingly, the projectile has no apparent ancient or modem damage. It is currently one of only three Cumberland points to be documented from the state of Georgia according to the Center for the Study of the First Americans. It is listed as specimen number 1136 in the Georgia Paleoindian survey. This survey provided documentation of 216 points in 1990 and has grown to 1445 points as of April 2008.

    If you have any Paleo points from the state of Georgia and you would like to get them documented, contact me and I will be glad to assist.


    Used by permission of the publisher
    To learn more about or to join the Central States Archaeological Society, click here: http://www.csasi.org/

    I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.

    Comment


    • #3
      Clues to the Past
      Steven R. Cooper, EIC
      Originally published in the Central States Archaeological Journal, Vol.55, No.1, pg.51


      Since the dawn of time, man has tended to go for the "bigger is better" in nearly every activity. The King had to have the biggest castle. The White House was built to be the biggest house in the United States. Many times a collection is judged by how big it is, a show by how many tables and an event by a huge attendance.


      Above: A street in Baxter, Tennessee, which is 63 miles from Nashville. Its population is just 1368 people compared to the over one million people who live in the greater Nashville area.

      Recently I attended the Baxter Show. It is the longest running show in Tennessee. The word bigger doesn't apply here in the normal sense. It is the smallest show in the state; held in an elementary school cafeteria with small tables at a height for youngsters to eat from. You could fit this entire show into a small corner of the big Collinsville Show. But sometimes big things come from small, and the Baxter Show is just such an event.

      Prior to attending, I called the show hosts, Clarence Sewell and Dennis Burgess and mentioned my upcoming Paleo Issue. I welcomed any participation they might want to have. They said they would see what they could round up to share with me, and let some other collectors know too.



      Pictured above are two points in the Bob Moyer collection. The four inch long Cumberland on the left was Bobs first find of the year in 1996. He found it on Salt Lick Creek in Jackson County. The interesting Clovis on the right was also found in Jackson County near the Dripping Rock Waterfall. This Clovis exhibits some interesting resharpening, and may have been picked up by a later culture and reused. The site it was found on is a multi-cultural site that has also yielded Motleys, Lost Lakes, Wheeler Recurvates and others.

      I really wasn't prepared for the feast I beheld when I arrived. I was viewing some of the most remarkable Paleo artifacts I have ever witnessed. I saw more fabulous pieces than I could imagine. I took many pictures and asked a lot of questions.

      One of the most stunning pieces was a huge Delbert Style Clovis. All that was found was the base, but it was a whopping 4 Y2 inches. This point, were it all there, would of perhaps exceeded the size of the largest Clovis ever found (see page 3 for a picture of the Rutz Clovis).



      Above is the base of a Debert Style Clovis made from Ft. Payne chert in the Dennis Burgess collection. This huge Clovis measures a whopping 4 ½ inches in length. It appears that it snapped in the very final stage of manufacture when the maker was trying to chip something off. There are two quartz inclusions in the material, and possibly when striking a flake off one of them, the piece broke apart. It was found two feet below the surface next to what turned out to be a ten foot in diameter fire pit. Around this same fire pit Quad Points and Cumberland Points were also found, showing this particular place was utilized for an extensive period of time.

      Then I was shown a group of points I had never seen before. The collector asked "What do you think these are?" Before I could answer, he said "Notched Lermas!" He then related how he had dug on a multicultural site than had been occupied for thousands of years. It had a Clovis level. But the deposits didn't end there and he dug further. Below this Clovis level he found some Cumberland points and Lermas. He then stated that he felt Lerma's were "Cumberland mans knife."

      We talked on and on for several hours. Then the show host, Clarence invited me to his home to see his largest find. While not prehistoric, it is the only surviving cabin from the pioneer period Fort Blount, built in 1794. He said the cabin was about to be demolished and burned back in the 1950's, when he offered to buy it. He mentioned he paid just $25 for it. There is some evidence Andrew Jackson might have slept in it! Today, nothing further remains of the fort except postholes. It just goes to show that if you don't preserve the past it will go away and be gone!

      By the end of the day I had taken so many pictures I could probably print a book.

      Baxter is a small town, just a few miles off of Interstate 40. You truly never know what you might be driving by when you pass an exit. But I can guarantee there are many surprises, and those little towns are much bigger than they appear.



      Above is show host Clarence Sewell, next to the original Ft Blount cabin. He moved it piece by piece and reassembled it at its current location. Clarence has lived in the area all his life and is an expert on its history.



      Above, shown full size, both sides of an exceptionally fine 4 ½ inch long St. Louis Style Clovis. It was found in Jackson County, Tennessee in mud pushed up during dozer work. It has exceedingly fine flaking and long flutes. It is made of a Tennessee hornstone.


      Used by permission of the publisher
      To learn more about or to join the Central States Archaeological Society, click here: http://www.csasi.org/
      I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.

      Comment


      • #4
        Rust on the Plow
        Cliff Jackson, Warrenton, North Carolina
        Originally published in the Central States Archaeological Journal, Vol.57, No.1, pg.20



        Figure 1. right Figure 2. left

        Those elusive Paleolithic points that I hungrily read about in that old 1940s literature when I was a kid always seemed to elude me no matter how hard I looked and how many Archaic artifacts I found. The Folsom Site and the earliest occupants of North Carolina seemed to have little in common, if you looked at my artifact finds of my first twenty productive years. Triangles or "bird points" and Halifax "uglies" by the score, and even Early Archaic Palmers, Kirks and even Hardaways could be found, but fluted points just weren't there on my sites for me.

        Along about 1995, a few farmers bought some bigger bottom plows and I knew this would bring up a new layer beneath the old plow zone. On April 4, 1995, I found my first Paleo find (Figure 1.). This multi-colored quartz point surfaced in the plow's throw, and was evidently much longer than its 2 1/4" re-sharpened length would tell, judging by the width. It is broad and would be thick were it not for the flute on one side (Figure 2.). This Clovis is probably made from a locally found river cobble from the Roanoke River basin, which can be crystal clear, red, yellow, white, or a mixture of colors of quartz.

        Many fields that year showed the black middens on the occupation sites, and eroded hilltops were red with fresh clay from the new plows. From one of those red hills came the little Clovis in Figure 3. Archaeologist Jack Hranicky has described this as a fine example of a "miniature Clovis" that he theorizes may have been a child's toy. It measures 1 1/4" long and is made of brown jasper.

        In 1996, the plows unearthed a fine 5 1/2" quartz Paleo knife (Figure 5.) from a riverside village site. Unfortunately, I was twenty feet away when my friend picked it up, and it took me many years to talk him into letting me buy it. This one is fine and thin, with the hafting area ground. Again, this was made from a local cobble of yellow quartz.
        Also in 1996, I found an exceptional Cumberland (or Redstone?) in a field in Moore County NC (Figures 6. -and- 7. ) which was featured in my article in Indian Artifact Magazine Volume 17-4 1998 as "1996 - The Year of the Paleo". This fully fluted, waisted projectile is made of very high-grade rhyolite and is 2 1/8" long. I had seen one very similar found on the same farm many years ago, and persistence in getting permission paid off in my first visit to the field. In the fall of that year, a multi-component site on another local swamp brought forth another fluted point (Figure 4.), this one made of local milky quartz with a deeply concave ground base. All of my fluted finds have been recorded in the North Carolina Fluted Point Survey, (started in 1971 by my fellow Warren County NC friend and archaeologist Phil H. Perkinson, and continued to this day by Rodney Peck of the PASNSCVA.)



        The big bottom plows now stand unused, as no-till farming has eliminated most plowing in the attempt to stop soil erosion. I was fortunate to have had many years of field walking before this came about, since the past ten years or so have produced very few quality surface finds, and no Paleo to be found now that the rust is on the plow.


        Used by permission of the publisher
        To learn more about or to join the Central States Archaeological Society, click here: http://www.csasi.org/
        I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.

        Comment

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