Some Indiana paleo

[joshuaream]

I busted out a couple of paleo points to take pictures for a different forum, and thought I'd put the pictures here as well. Neither are personal finds, but I can't resist old broken paleos from my home state.

This first piece is the tip of what would have been a huge fluted point. Not Clovis, probably something between a Cumberland & a Barnes point. (If there were a magic machine that could restore broken pieces to their ancient glory, this piece would be the one I put in first.)



This second piece is one of only two Folsom artifacts documented from Indiana, the other one came from the same county. I got this in a bucket of broken points at a farm auction when I was a kid (rode my bike there, rode home with a heavy bucket hanging on one side of the handle bars.)



Here is the other one that has been published.

An Indiana Folsom Point

 

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[Buckleberry]

Awesome stuff there Joshua.
that big blade is fantastic...cool story about its acquisition too.


"(If there were a magic machine that could restore broken pieces to their ancient glory, this piece would be the one I put in first.)" I thought that's why God made Doc Gomer.

 

[justonemore]

Have found Hilo here, maybe a Clovis drill but paleo eludes me. Have a friend in Walkerton who has a frame of points his grandfather found on the farm. Nice little Clovis sitting with the dozen or so other points.

 

[joshuaream]

Have found Hilo here, maybe a Clovis drill but paleo eludes me. Have a friend in Walkerton who has a frame of points his grandfather found on the farm. Nice little Clovis sitting with the dozen or so other points.

My grandparents lived in Walkerton and my mom went to highschool there. There was a great collection on display at Stuntz Christmas tree farm outside of Walkerton when the old guy was still alive.

Paleo is difficult in that part of the state, I think there is only one fluted point from St. Joseph county in the Paleoindian Database that has find data from about 12,000 fluted points. Lots of Archaic material & later, but paleo people just didn't leave a lot of material there. One of the thoughts is that there was a shallow lake that didn't drain until the Kankakee river managed to burst through the natural levee (moraine) left by the Wisconsin Glacier. The biggest drainage event was called the Kankakee Torrent, but smaller events probably drained several lakes that backed up.

 

[joshuaream]

Awesome stuff there Joshua.
that big blade is fantastic...cool story about its acquisition too.


"(If there were a magic machine that could restore broken pieces to their ancient glory, this piece would be the one I put in first.)" I thought that's why God made Doc Gomer.

Gomer does do amazing work.

 

[sandchip]

My first impression on the Folsom was instead a Bulltongue Simpson, rare even in its normal distribution area. Every Folsom that I've seen was a small point and more importantly, fluted from base to tip. No expert here and not questioning those that are, but search images of each type and draw your own conclusion.

Both exceptional pieces that would be in the frame of my best items if I found them.

 

[joshuaream]

My first impression on the Folsom was instead a Bulltongue Simpson, rare even in its normal distribution area. Every Folsom that I've seen was a small point and more importantly, fluted from base to tip. No expert here and not questioning those that are, but search images of each type and draw your own conclusion.

Both exceptional pieces that would be in the frame of my best items if I found them.

Sandchip, sorry I wasn't clear. The big biface was identified as a Folsom ultrathin at the Paleo American Odyssey by several people. The fluted point is probably something on the Cumberland/Barnes spectrum of artifacts.

 

[welsbury]

Great post Joshua. Did you know about the ultrathin at the time you got the bucket o pieces?

 

[Jd.Ole13]

wow! thanks for posting! very educational. lol. little kid with rocks in a bucket on the way home. i love it.

 

[joshuaream]

Great post Joshua. Did you know about the ultrathin at the time you got the bucket o pieces?

No, there were a couple of celts in the bucket that I wanted.

 

[rock]

Nice examples and story

 

[Igyjastabay]

Very nice JOSH, published or not, the lower pic is not Paleo. Some people dream great dreams.

 

[Charl]

I think being identified as a Folsom ultrathin knife at the Paleo American Odyssey is pretty strong support for it's Paleo origins, and likely not based on "dreaming". It's a killer piece.

Folsom Ultrathin Knives

"The Folsom tradition is best known for its distinctive projectile points. Folsom projectile points are well-knapped and are often made of extremely high-quality lithic material. There is more, however, to the Folsom assemblage than merely projectile points. Scholars in the past decade have also identified some very distinctive, thin flint knives, which have become known as "ultrathin" bifaces.

These tools were made and used by Folsom peoples, and have been recorded in a number of Folsom sites, including Stewart's Cattle Guard (Colorado), Shifting Sands (West Texas), the Big Black site in North Dakota and others. These very distinctive knives are called "ultrathins" because they are generally between 7 to 13 times as wide as they are thick, although some have been recorded with as much as a 21/1 width to thickness ratio."

 

[joshuaream]

Very nice JOSH, published or not, the lower pic is not Paleo. Some people dream great dreams.

It's not a common knife form, but here are some additional examples. The only people who made comparably thin knives with diving flakes in the center were Caddoan/Mississippian people. Their bifaces are typically much longer than this example, and generally restricted to a small area in Texas, Arkansas, & Oklahoma.

 

[fishstick]

Those are some DAMN FINE lookin frames there Josh!!!!!!! Indiana is usually not known for our paleo pieces but I have seen some KILLERS come out of our soil. In my county I know of only ONE confirmed paleo site and it's only been turned over a couple times in the last century, SO SAD!!!!! A old timer friend of mine that got me into the AWESOME passion of rockpickin has one of the most beautiful frames I've ever seen that came from that site ... I've drove by that site for the last 20 yrs just hoping to see it get worked!!!! Wish I could buy it... NEVER would've dreamed of folsom pieces being HERE!!! Thanx for the lesson and the show!!!!