Petit Jean River

[Neanderthal]

I posted this on my board, so thought I may as well post it here.

Petit Jean River are one of the obscure types that are commonly misidentified. I thought you may like to see a picture of one of the classic "type" specimens. This was out of Perino's collection and is illustrated in his vol. III., Selected Points and Preforms of the North American Indians. It is from Texarkana, OK. Stem edge is well ground.

Petit Jean River often are mistaken for Dickson, but are much older. I often times see them mistaken for Johnson when they are heavily resharpened and near exhaustion. They also can be confused with Hidden Valley and may prove to be a variant thereof. However, PJR usually aren't as sharply barbed and the basal corners are rounded, as opposed to sharp on HV. They are found In West Ark, East OK, NW LA and NE Tx. They appear to be early Archaic.

Matt

 

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[*Molly*]

So Matt is this a Jean River type,its very thin, well made, I purchased it off Shawn. Found in his area.

Molly.

 

[Neanderthal]

No, that looks more like a Gary. Gary (Krieger) is a pretty generic term defining alot of the contracting stems that are more rounded or come to a point. As for Petit Jean River, the one in the pic I posted is pretty classic for the type. Truncated stem (which is generally ground) with slightly rounded basal edges, barbs are present in early form but lost with many resharpenings. They typically don't aren't serrated, which is another difference from Hidden Valley. They are usually very well made and for the area would look more like a Johnson or Dickson than Gary (Krieger).

Shawn & Atlantis both have probably found a few of them, but they are more common up northwards of them.

 

[*Molly*]

I never knew Garys could be so thin..

Molly

 

[Neanderthal]

They can be paper thin, thick, crude or nice. There are many different forms and until in-depth studies are done on them, we will never know the full story. The rarest form that I have seen is the "Notched Gary", I can count the examples of them on one hand. I keep planning on writing up a prolific report on the variants, but can't seem to find the time or ambition. The truth of the matter is that most of what we call Gary (Kriegers) aren't....they're just like the Scallorn, Kirk, Adena and a Plethora of others.

I make the motion that we just call them all pointy rocks! I need a beer or ten.. hehe

 

[stryker-one]

Very good specimen Matt. Concise and simple explanation too. Too bad you all are too far from Oregon--it would be nice to get together for some coffee and get tuned up on projectile points.

Nice photo--as always.

Thank you for sharing.

Stryker

 

[*Molly*]

Matt. Thankyou for this post, I know how busy you are. All typology info helps us with identification, as some of us know this is not an easy task. Thanx again.

Molly