Snapped base Kirk

Triumph · Nov 20, 2016

Had a good dig yesterday. Not a lot of whole points but these 2 were nice. My first Kirk with a broken or snapped base.
I dug out almost 1/3 of a 5 gal bucket of pottery. Found my first Bone tool but it was broken. Friday we dug in a different site and found a broken banner stone. We test dug about 3 other holes and found flakes in every one of them. This site must have been covered every flat spot was occupied. I will be digging this site until I die and not get everything. Might be time for a Back Hoe.

The Kirk is a uni-face flat on the other side. Wonder if the snapped base was intentional?

Thanks for looking

redbeardrelics · Nov 21, 2016

Congrats on the nice finds! It must be great to have a site you can dig on indefinitely.
Good question on the "snapped base" Kirk points. IMO most are probably ancient damage due to too much twisting or prying of the point. I do find it interesting though that the "snapped base" phenomena seems to occur more on Kirk style and era points than on points of other types and eras. My guess is that it is due to primarily to the way some of the Kirk points were used for a prying function, as opposed to penetration. I do think it is possible and probable that some of the "snapped base" points were intentional, and maybe some of those folks found it easier and more practical to snap the unfinished basal end off a point to get a blunt base, than it was to spend the time grinding it down, or trying to make it blunt via burin flaking? Maybe some of those Kirk point makers were making their version of Decatur based points? HH.

Triumph · Nov 21, 2016

I agree, I’m in your camp but my Nephew which is on the other side thinks that it is a defective point. We had a discussion about it when we found it. I think too many are found unless it is just a defective design which it could be, but it seems like we would find other designs that would be as common as the Kirk with the same issue.