Massive Clovis Preform found this past weekend

[scuba1970]

Have a small knoll that produces some stuff once in a while and pow there it was. This beast is 6 3/8 long by 2 1/4 wide and made of either Hixon quartzite or a local variety of sugar Quartz. Pics do not do it justice, when light hits just right it sparkles like crazy and shows some beautiful paleo flaking. Looks like base was setup for fluting but never was. I've found a nice thumb nail scraper off site and last year found a massive clovis midsection. Have never found anything else on site except for an occasional flake and a few hammerstones. Hope you enjoy looking at as I did finding.

 

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[scuba1970]

Another

 

[Scrappy]

Wow. Amazing!

 

[scuba1970]

Another

 

[scuba1970]

One more

 

[Erik in NJ]

Nice! What state was this found in?

 

[scuba1970]

Side shot

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Why did you think it is a clovis?

 

[scuba1970]

One more View attachment 1234999

Found it in Madison County Illinois. I'm located just east of St Louis MO.

 

[scuba1970]

View attachment 1235001 Side shot

Good question.
Few reasons. Site demographics, found clovis midsection and paleo thumbnail scraper in same close area (100ft or less) and no other age relics ever found on hill. Classic early paleo knapping and form. I've been lucky enough to hunt a few clovis sites growing up and had one large site studied by the state archaeologists. This blade or preform is classic form to clovis materials from area. I've shown it already to one of the state archaeologists who recorded my other site and he also feels it's clovis material.

 

[Erik in NJ]

Found it in Madison County Illinois. I'm located just east of St Louis MO.

Thanks for the added context. Beautiful Clovis preform!

 

[scuba1970]

You're welcome. If you google "clovis preform" pics there's a ton of pics of them out there and you can see the resemblance of all to this one. Looks like this one is mid stage, right before fluting.

The archaeologist who looked at it said it's also the largest he's ever seen in IL. It's huge.

 

[IndianaHunter27]

Amazing artifact there!

 

[bigfoot1]

man...thats a whomper !!!congrats

 

[ClovisOak]

Nice find there! Bet it is nice to hold!

 

[port ewen ace]

no need to mount on a spear--- just beat the enemy severely about his head. SMOKIN' COOL FIND

 

[Jacobsdt]

That is an awesome find, I would love to find one for my collection of digs. Congrats.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Good question.
Few reasons. Site demographics, found clovis midsection and paleo thumbnail scraper in same close area (100ft or less) and no other age relics ever found on hill. Classic early paleo knapping and form. I've been lucky enough to hunt a few clovis sites growing up and had one large site studied by the state archaeologists. This blade or preform is classic form to clovis materials from area. I've shown it already to one of the state archaeologists who recorded my other site and he also feels it's clovis material.

I think it looks more like a Wadlow blade than Clovis....

"Wadlow Point

Chapman (1975:251-2) notes that Wadlow points are found primarily in Northeast Missouri. The diagnostic feature of this artifact is the fact that the blade is medium to long with edges that are either convex (out curving) or straight. Chapman notes that length ranges from 80 to 250 mm; thickness is ranges from 11 mm to 19 mm. Perino (1968:98) noted that the Wadlow points are often found in caches on blufftop sites. Chapman (1975:252) places this artifact type in the Late Archaic Period (3000 to 1000 BC). Morrow (1984:16) notes that Wadlow points are rare in Iowa and narrows their age to 2000 to 1000 BC."
http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/moarch/pp new/Wadlow.html

Here is Wadlow blade in my collection found on Il side of St Louis, it came from the collection of Tony Bakutis, VP IL. State Archology Society ..

 

[Darby]

Super great find!! I was an avid arrowhead hunter before getting hooked on detecting and have been blessed to find a few paleo finds including one Clovis point. What a great feeling when you first feel it in your hands! And to imagine your hands were the first to touch it since the person who lost it thousands of years ago. Really cool. Congrats.

 

[pepperj]

What a great find, it's huge! Ah it doesn't get any better than this finding something that old and still intact. Congrats, the memory will be there forever for you getting this one.