Mississippian culture frame

[Th3rty7]

All from the same site in se West Virginia. Anyone know what the material of the purple bead preform is?

 

[Flintfinder of Mo.]

Thats a killer frame 37. John

 

[uniface]

Whoa !!!! Whomped me upside the head with that one ! The two endscrapers at 11:00 and 11:30 are dead ringers for earlier pieces.

The learning on this end continues . . .

 

[Th3rty7]

Whoa !!!! Whomped me upside the head with that one ! The two endscrapers at 11:00 and 11:30 are dead ringers for earlier pieces.

The learning on this end continues . . .

They're pretty much miniature end scrapers. Thumbscapers as opposed to hafted end scrapers. I too was surprised at the similarity. Everything pictured was found just under the surface, 3 inches deep and you're well past the horizon. (updated) I've included a comparison pic with some typical early end scrapers. Same triangular form, same flaking style on business end. These Miss. pieces have a uniform thickness and don't taper from thick to thin like most end scrapers. You might even call that a worn spur?

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Killer tray thirty7. You know how much I love Ft Ancient artifacts and those are some dandies. I really like the Shell Beads.

 

[Th3rty7]

Thanks John and Steve, hey dork do you have a few examples pictured of some of the thumbscrapers you pick up on your Miss. / fort ancient sites? I'd love to see some to compare and contrast. Post em in here if you get a chance.

 

[pickaway]

Great site collection...

 

[Tnmountains]

Nice frame well done. In the south many of those would be considered hamiltons,guntersvilles and greenevilles with those types of bases. I guess it just depends upon where you find them. We used to call them Dallas points at one time also .
Could the preform bead be a gem stone? Man those guys got fancy towards the end of their way of life.
Nice post and finds
HH
TnMtns

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Is the preform for the bead Amethyst?

Thirty7, we don't find a lot of Thumbscrapers on our Ft Ancient sites and I only have one site where they are found and we call them Turtleback Scrapers. They are actually flaked on both faces and aren't uniface like a normal Scraper.

Here's a few pictures of some of them. The last picture shows the back side which is normally uniface, but as you can see it is flaked just the top side is. This is the only site I have ever found these types of Scrapers.

 

[creek astronaut]

killer frame 37

 

[Th3rty7]

Appreciate the comments. I think it's a Hamilton site, possibly Madison, tough to accurately id these Miss. triangles. I did some gem material research and I think you guys are right, it's amethyst, a violet / purple form of quartz. Thanks for the pics dorkfish, those turtlebacks and their time period have helped answer some questions.