Rhode Island Ground Slate Blade

[Charl]

Not a personal find. But rare as hen's teeth, and I had to bring it home to RI where it was found. Our member mainejman finds ground slate artifacts made by the Maritime Archaic of coastal Maine, aka the Red Paint People, aka the Late Archaic Moorehead Phase.

But, there was another Late Archaic culture, the Vergennes Phase of the Laurentian Tradition( a tradition that included Brewerton points) that made ground slate implements, and probably inspired by the Red Paint examples from Maine. The diagnostic point type of the Vergennes Phase in the Northeast are Otter Creek Points(The SE analog would be Big Sandy points). Two RI Otter Creek points seen below. The ground slate points made by this culture are found in all the New England states and NY, and probably a bit further afield. Many of their slate points show notches on the stem, as this RI example does. The illustration is from Willoughby's "Antiquities of the New England Indians"(1935), and shows Vergennes Phase ground slate points from Vermont. The RI point is just under 5".

 

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[Charl]

Part of a cache of 11 ground slate blades from Vermont. Largest is about a foot in length as I recall.....

 

[old digger]

Those slate points are awesome and cool! I sincerely hope you have the opportunity to find some of those.

 

[NC field hunter]

Rare as hen's teeth is right! Nice pieces you have there. Do you think ground slate points were ceremonial or used as a means to survive?

 

[Charl]

Rare as hen's teeth is right! Nice pieces you have there. Do you think ground slate points were ceremonial or used as a means to survive?

Among the Maritime Archaic people of Maine and Maritime Canada, they were very much part of the survival tool kit, especially for hunting fish and sea mammals. Ground slate is especially effective for killing sea mammals. No surprise Eskimo ground slate is so similar. In fact, their slate points often have notched stems as well. On the other hand, very large examples, well over a foot, are frequently found in the context of the Maritime Archaic's famous red paint(ochre) burials.

As for the Vergennes Phase usage, there too the slate tools saw utilitarian usage. I can see usage wear on one edge of the RI example. But, this is slate, and it's a fragile lithic for what would be normally flaked stone tools. In the second photo of the RI point, you can see a crack at tip, and a piece in center of blade that are both quite capable of peeling right off! If I'm not careful, yikes. The nature of slate after all. But they were used nonetheless. Like anything else, however, there must have been ceremonial/burial contexts for the biggest and best, just as is often the case with other classes of artifacts in that fashion.

The cache from Vermont is not mine!

From Willoughby's 1935 book cited above, these are all examples found in burial context, from Maine, hence the Red Paint People(an older term really since so many people used ochre in burials). So these might be described as "ceremonial". The largest go by the term slate bayonet.

Correction: there are some surface finds in the first illustration, noted in the caption.

 

[yakker]

Holy Smokes- those are beautiful!! And that cache is just amazing- I think I would have passed out cold if I'd been the one to find those beauties! Now I REALLY want to get back up there and give it a go! Found in back country MA too?? (crossing fingers) Thanks for another awesome show and tutorial! Yakker

 

[-=METAL=-]

Those are amazing. Thank you for sharing.