Multiple Levels of Coolness for Arrowhead

[pointdlr]

I know subject line is bad, but I couldn't think of another way to explain this piece.
Artifact is a Paleo Lance/Agate Basin/whatever your current type guide calls it. High grade Indiana Hornstone with nice quartz inclusion.
Piece was found in-situ by Art Gerber at the Crib Site in Southern Indiana. Art relayed that piece was found in a large mass of freshwater clam shells. There are multiple reasons why this makes the piece special.
1) Lance is Late Paleo. Crib Site is Middle Archaic and did not contain earlier material. Being found in-situ with other Middle Archaic relics means that this piece was found by an Archaic North American 4-5 thousand years after it was originally made.
2) Notice the extensive use polish, and the almost celt like bit on the piece. This piece was used by an Archaic man as a "clam shell opener". The association, the wear pattern on the piece, and holding it for 1 second will confirm this is not a theory formed from over active collector imagination.
3) A Paleo piece being re-manufactured into a Mid-Archaic tool is mind boggling to me. I don't think there are too many examples of this type of recycling with a provenance to go with them.
Hope you like.
Jon Dickinson.

[OneOneNiner]

Subject line is right on! That thing is all kinds of cool.
Thanks for sharing the pics.

[ghost recon]

That is an awesome piece and pretty important too I would think because like you said it's one of the very few that proves artifacts were recycled by later cultures. What a fine piece of Hornstone as well. A late paleo megafauna killer turned into a mid-archaic clam opener. Kind of ironic.

[marksimerson]

A middle archaic can opener! COOL PIECE!!!!

[Steve Valentine]

Very cool piece Jon. Definitely proves that later cultures found and reused artifacts from earlier cultures.

Also, I know this probably wasn't done on purpose, but that second picture sure looks like a Gar to me. lol

[Mooch]

Great piece. In one of Hart,s pipe rack books it shows a broken clovis found at crib back in the late 1800's. I would love to have seen that piece when it was first made, I have never been able to get a great gray flint agate basin. Super cool piece, maybe I will get to see it at Ripley this year.

[Palmwood]

I think the subject line covers it. There is a lot to enjoy on that one. But I still can't get past that fine material.

[longtimefree]

i wonder if the archaic native had the same emotion as we have when he or she re-found it. very nice piece

[pointdlr]

Thanks for the comments. Piece also highlights the benefit of great finder history. If the piece was just sitting in a collection without any info, it would be impossible to know all the extra info on the piece. Getting it from the finder really locks in the story. Doesn't hurt that it is from Art Gerber either.

Mooch- I have not seen that Clovis, but Art did tell me that there were a few dovetails found, and a handful of other earlier pieces found at the Crib. All were found in the Archaic layers, and are further evidence of ancient collectors. I hope you come out to Ripley. Picture is a Hornstone Lance I have been chasing for 10 years. Guy refuses to even talk to me about it. I call him every year around Christmas hoping he will crack.

Longtime- I think the Archaic guy must have marveled at the workmanship, but probably was thinking "Damn, this is perfect to open those shells." The freshwater clam beds at the Crib is the reason the site was so prolific. They ate 'em by the hundreds of thousands...

[comanche]

Lots of nice things going on with this one!
Killer Material .The Bulls Eye with the Inclusion is over the top.
Thanks for posting this very interesting artifacts///c