Type? Material?

Huzzah! · Jun 23, 2020

These were found Saturday in Central Virginia. The more-whole point looks to be made from Flint Run Jasper, but that's as far as I got. Not sure of what the more-broken point is made from. Any idea on the type of either? What do yall think? Both look to have a flute on one side (middle photo shows both). Thanks for lookin

antmike915 · Jun 23, 2020

Both appear to be triangles, every state has different names for them.

ToddsPoint · Jun 24, 2020

Never been to Virginia but it looks like a type of jasper to me. Gary

Huzzah! · Jun 24, 2020

Thanks for the replies guys--agree with you both. The portion of the field where these were found had some really cool lithic material that wasn't present elsewhere in the field where I was finding most of the stuff that day--will get a pic up. Thought the materials were so interesting compared to what we normally find around here (since it's mostly varieties of quartz we find) I kept a few pieces.

Still unsure of the period of either of the two. Looked through my Nottoway River survey books and can't make up my mind. Antmike I certainly agree they are some kind of triangle, but to be more specific I really can't judge. Over the last few days I've looked at pee dees/jacks reef pentagonals and Levanna/yadkins points that perked my attention, but then I see the Ely's Ford pentagonals that are sometimes fluted and since both of these pieces above have what appears to be flutes I really don't know what to think.

Quartzite Keith · Jun 24, 2020

Both are jasper. The smaller one on the left is a grainier variety of jasper. Given your location the most likely source is the Bonnefont jasper in Powhatan County. Other known sources in you general vicinity are Brook Run in Caroline County and Cattail Creek/Williamson in Dinwiddie County (known as a chert source, but there is jasper mixed in the deposit). It could also be from an unknown source, random pieces of jasper turn up here and there throughout the area.

Are the bases ground? Both appear to be lanceolot forms with at least some serious attempt at basal thinning, if not actual flutes on one side. That would point toward late paleo or what is also called transitional paleo--basically the period between "Clovis" and "early archaic". One of the regional names for these is "Appomattox River". Also what McAvoy calls "Carson Lanceolate" .

Painting with a somewhat wide brush, generally speaking when you find "exotic" materials on a site in Central Virginia it does tend to point toward paleo or early archaic. The people then seemed to have a larger area to roam around in than later groups did, who were then forced to use local material more.

Huzzah! · Jun 24, 2020

Thanks for the info Keith--McAvoy's work has certainly aided me in my search. Bonnefont jasper makes the most sense concerning the smaller one, but the flint run jasper makes the most sense when just looking at the material of the larger point--I could be wrong. Either way I like the look of it. Cool point.

Flint Run Jasper

As far as the bases are concerned, the smaller point definitely has some basal grinding and the larger has been thinned quite a bit, but it has no grinding. I'm heading back this weekend before the corn gets too tall so hopefully I'll find something else. Thanks again

Quartzite Keith · Jun 24, 2020

The funny thing about that larger piece is how one half does look very similar to Flint Run while the other half looks very similar to Bonnefont. I had a similar experience with a palm-sized flat cobble I found in a small creek that runs into the Appomattox River from the north (southern Chesterfield County).

This is after I struck off a flake with a hammerstone:

Taking off more flakes from one face shows the mix of material in one fairly small cobble:

And who would have guessed that what I ended up with seems to show only a small part of the original diversity?:

I've walked that creek probably a hundred times picking up quartz and quartzite to knap and have never found so much as a pebble of jasper other than this one, random piece!