THE PLATFORM
-a publication of the Minnesota Knappers Guild-
THE PLATFORM
-a publication of the Minnesota Knappers Guild-
Editor: Gene Altiere
712 MEDICAL ARTS BUILDING
DULUTH, MN 55802
A common percussion flaking problem is that of trying to thin down a spall
which is flat on one side and rounded or humped on the other side (fig. 1). Often,
the approach to this situation is to start taking thinning flakes off the
flat side. This is almost always a mistake for two reasons: A flake taken off
the flat side will usually end
in a deep hinge fracture; and you still have the original thick hump on the other
side (fig. 2). A better approach is to move the edge up towards the side (fig.
3).
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The Misiano site, FS 304-034, is named after Tom Misiano, a Forest Service employee. The official record may say that it was so named because Mr. Misiano was helpful in facilitating early excavation efforts but, according to the site director, this honor was actually bestowed as a bribe to make him more receptive to archeological investigations and investigators (whatever works)! The site, also referred to as "McDougal", is situated on the north shore of McDougal Lake, 30 miles south of Ely, Minnesota on State Highway #1. More specifically, it is located north of Two Harbors, Minnesota, 3 miles south of the junction of State Highways #1 and #2 in Lake County.
According to archaeologist Peters the site was selected for excavation for two main reasons: surface collecting and shovel testing yielded "tons" of flakes along with other diagnostic materials from the paleoindian period (a special interest of Peters) and more importantly it offered easy access for the public to become involved in the "PASSPORT IN TIME" volunteer program.
Peters, with his staff of University of Minnesota-Duluth Archaeological Field School students and summer volunteer crew, has determined the site has features and artifacts mainly from the Archaic (8,000-2,500 years BP - "before present") and Paleoindian (12,0900-8,000 years BP) Horizons. However, in one remote area of the site very near the surface a small amount of Sandy Lake pottery along with a small triangular projectile point was found. These cultural clues are representative of the Terminal Woodland Period (1,000-300 years BP). These straight sided, undecorated, unflared, shell or grit-tempered pots are thought to be one of the most recent forms of pottery found in Minnesota.
Underlying the Woodland level, Archaic Period materials were encountered. These materials included side and corner notched projectile points, copper artifacts such as two "rat tail" copper knives, and fire hearths with adjoining concentrations of lithic materials interpreted to be waste flakes from knapping.
The Archaic Horizon reached to a depth of from 22 to 26 centimeters. Below this level the Paleoindian Period is well represented by large, high quality siltstone (Knife Lake silicified metasiltstone) reduction flakes, expertly knapped large bifaces, broken bases of plano type (lanceolate) projectile points and gravers. Other types of stone such as Kekabeca Chert, Gunflint Silica and Jasper Taconite which are commonly found in other older northern Minnesota sites are well represented.
One intriguing feature found at the Paleo level were groups of boulders one foot or more in diameter, spaced several feet apart forming large ovals. These excavated ovals may prove to be "Tepee rings" when further excavation is completed. The large stones may have been used to weigh down hides or bark covering primitive dwellings. This notion is supported by the finding of fire place hearths located within the ovals. Even more interesting is the consistent pattern of these hearths being located on the north side of the ovals. The hearths were also surrounded by concentrations of lithic debris. Ph (acidity) tests are being conducted on the soil inside and outside the circles. If they are dwelling rings, the soil inside the habitation areas should be less acidic than the soil on the outside, according to the archaeologists.
Also encountered within one of the possible houses was a very unusual "stacked" concentration of large siltstone flakes. These may have been placed inside some kind of container of hide or bark which has since decomposed. A plaster cast was made around the concentration and it was brought back to the lab for careful, photo-documented excavation.
In a newly opened part of the site this summer, immature ungulate bones were found. This documents the habitation by at least some people during spring or early summer.
All archaeologists dream of sites with well defined "stratigraphy" (clearly defined layers with the old stuff on the bottom and the newest on top). The Misiano site is not cooperating! Due to glacial erosion and wind deposited loam, it is a nightmare. The most reliable stratigraphy at this time seems to be in the loam deposited depressions.
Gordon Peters and
his team are waiting anxiously for the next excavation season. They hope to augment
the existing sparse information now covering the earliest of archaeological
times in northeastern Minnesota, and at the same time display and interpret
their findings to the remarkably increasing numbers of public visitors to the site.
All Guild members and friends are invited to visit the Misiano site next
summer. The site is open to the
public daily between 10am and 3 pm, including weekends (rainy days excluded).
Work is scheduled at Misiano from June 30th through August 12th next field season.
Make plans to visit!
This article is the fourth in the series by Mr.
Gonsior and marks the conclusion of the articles on Southeastern Minnesota Lithics.
As stated elsewhere in this
issue, we are expecting to continue the information on Minnesota Lithic materials
in Volume 5 of the platform with a series of articles written by Kent Bakken.
We wish to express our thanks to LeRoy Gonsior for writing these articles
for The Platform and for enlisting Mr. Bakken to continue the work. -Ed.
Part
IV
Cedar Valley Chert
Chert from the Solon Member of the
Cedar Valley Formation was initially identified from surface deposits at the Hadland
Site, (21 FL 60), as Cedar
Valley Jasperoid (Ready 1981). It is also called Root River chert, Solon chert
or jasper. Research of this chert revealed that some varieties were not discussed
in Ready's description and that a chert, rather than a jasperoid, identification
is more appropriate. Two distinct varieties have now been identified,
opaque and translucent. The opaque variety simply is a jasper-like chert, that
when thin flakes are held in front of a light source, no light passes through
them. It is brown, colored
sometimes with swirls or mottling, but is generally a homogeneous color and texture.
Colors vary from a light yellowish brown [10 YR 6/4], yellowish
brown
[10 YR 5/8], brownish yellow [10 YR 6/6] to brown [10 YR 4/3]. The
translucent
variety encompasses many color variations and textural differences.
Flakes are slightly translucent to transparent when held against a light source.
Nodules often exhibit a chalcedony-like exterior layer. This variety is
usually mottled with brown, yellow,
and white color combinations. Munsell colors vary from yellowish brown
[10 YR 5/4], brownish yellow [10 YR 6/8], dark brown [10 YR 3/3], very dark gray
[10 YR 3/1] to light gray [10 YR 7/1]. Heat treated colors range from a brown
[10 YR 5/3] to dark yellowish brown [10 YR 4/6], weak red [10 R 4/3 and 4/4],
to dark red [10 R 3/6] to dusky red [10 R 3/3]. Cortex color changes resulting
from heat treating are to a dark reddish gray [10 R 3/1] to a dusky red [2.5
YR 3/2]. Textural differences
vary from chalcedony-like to medium quality chert to poor quality chert within
the same nodule. Also present is a grainy variation that appears quartzite-like
without magnification. Both varieties exhibit a dark purple color under long
wave ultra violet light with the exception of the translucent variety where the
chalcedony-like portion fluoresces a milky white color. Both the opaque and
translucent varieties are found at the Hadland Site along the South Branch of the
Root River in Fillmore County
as nodules or slabs, often cemented together into large boulders. The opaque
variety has been recovered from spoil piles (modern waste piles - Ed.) from flooded
limestone quarries in eastern Mower County and also was reported in northwestern
Fillmore County by the Minnesota Geological Survey. Another source area
of the opaque variety has recently been identified in Buffalo County, Wisconsin
and is referred to as Root River chert. Apparently the largest concentration
of this material is associated
with the Windrow Formation, in Fillmore County, within a shallow iron ore deposit
(Bleifuss 1972). The near surface iron ore deposits were extensively mined
during the 1940's. An examination of spoil piles indicated that the ore apparently
is a mixture of iron and chert. The Solon Member of the Cedar Valley Formation
is a fossiliferous dolostone deposit (Mossler 1978). No fossils have been
found in the chert nodules, however they may be present.Cedar Valley chert is
apparently found in the Devonian
age Solon Member of the Cedar Valley Formation although the exact
geological
context has not been identified inexposures (above ground projections of
the formation - Ed.). At the Hadland Site where it was first identified, both
the Solon Member of the Cedar Valley Formation and the Clermont Member of the Maquoketa
Formation are exposed on the surface. Chert from the Solon Member was
reported to occupy the bottom few inches adjoining the chert-rich Maquoketa Formation
(Mossler 1978). For this
reason, archaeologists have been apprehensive about calling this material Solon
chert even though most are confident that it is associated with the Solon Member.
The American Indian use of Cedar Valley Chert is just beginning to be understood.
It is found at many archaeological sites outside its source area, and
may have a distribution similar to Grand Meadow chert.
The opaque variety
is an excellent material for flintknapping. It is a hard material to work
with in its natural state, but
is vastly improved by heat treating. Heat treating in the 400 to 500 degree Fahrenheit
range is sufficient. Samples of the opaque variety fired to 500 degrees
over night in a oven turn deep red on the outside with a glass-like brown interior,
which is very colorful with swirled nodules. With heat treatment, a more
subtle approach is necessary for flaking and edge preparation such as would
be used with obsidian. The translucent variety requires some experience since
the textural differences are a
problem. Flakes easily travel through the exterior chalcedonic layer but do not
travel well through the coarser interior and often hinge. The grainy translucent
variety can be percussion flaked, but is very difficult to pressure flake.
It has long been realized that those of us who choose to utilize copper for flaking artifacts will be subjected to constant questioning about authenticity. Invariably, during knapping demonstrations for either just plain folks or professionals, the statement will be made that, "Oh, yeah, what you're doing is nice but it's not the real thing, you're cheating--the primitive indians didn't have copper!" Invariably we'll mutter something about "art" and "skill" and "wearing out tools". If we are really frustrated we'll snap back that if they had these tools they would have used them! Well folks, we may have hit on something. Those of you who use copper need not hang your head in shame and those of you who shun it ought to listen up. You may be missing out on a true facet of primitive technology simply out of uninformed blind prejudice.
Some years ago, a couple of the founding members of the MKG had their first contact with the archaeological staff in charge of the Superior National Forest (a vast Federal wilderness area in northeastern Minnesota). The occasion was prompted by their request to observe us flint knapping. During the demonstration the senior archaeologist commented "politely" about our use of copper and whether we thought it was authentic.
Romano, being only half-Italian, wasn't smart enough to keep his mouth shut and responded by saying he really believed it was authentic. Altiere, being entirely of Italian descent, merely nodded his head and let Romano ramble on. He went on to explain that he had reviewed many articles with photographs of copper tools. These tools are almost always grouped together as knives, projectile points, spuds, awls and so on. One of the categories is "punches" and it makes no sense to be at all. Punching what, with what? The alleged punches shown are always short; short enough to smash your fingers if you tried to hammer on them. The ends of these tools are a puzzle, too. Some are blunt on one end, slightly narrowed on the other end, but not at like an awl or perforator. Others are simply blunted on both ends. They exhibit no peening over or other type of deformation as you would expect from pounding and being used as a punch. Even more enigmatic, some of them are bent in the middle and resemble a comma.
The senior archaeologist jumped up, went to a site drawer and came back with a handful of small copper objects and said "You mean like these?". The artifacts (see drawings) were short, 3 cm (1 1/4 inches) to 5 cm (2 inches) long, 3 mm (3/16 inches) to 5 mm (5/16 inches) wide, slightly less thick and roughly rectangular in shape. One end of the punches was tapered to a blunt point for about one-fourth the length of the "punch" and the other end was in full form but uniformly rounded. And one was bent in the middle to a 45 degree angle!
We both had short, work hardened, copper knapping points hafted in antler tines, and were using these tools for some retouch pressure flaking. When we removed the points from their hafting and placed them next to the artifacts, the two were nearly identical except for their cross sectional shape! We have since made copper "wire" from a natural copper nugget and the cross sectional shape is identical. If you pound the center of the wire with your hammer(stone) a few extra times, this area will reduce in size and form the tapered end of the tool when the "wire" is broken in half. You end up with two tools per manufactured piece of "wire". All that remains to be done to make it look identical to the artifact is to haft it and round the working end through use.
Several months later we bumped into the same archaeologist (who, by the way, has become a great friend, supporter and member of the MKG) at a demonstration for the Northern Lakes Archaeology Society. He agreed that the tools we had showed him worked well and that we had a viable hypothesis as to the primitive use of copper for knapping purposes.
Sometime last year Tony was given a copy of University of Minnesota's "Publications in Anthropology, Number 4" honoring Elden Johnson who is now sadly deceased. An article entitled "The Origins of Copper in Three Northern Minnesota Sites: Pauly, River Point and Big Rice" was of great interest. It read:
"On the north shore of Big Rice Lake, the Big Rice site occupies a large terraced peninsula that commands an overview of the lake. Located approximately twelve miles north of Virginia, Minnesota, this late summer/early fall wild rice processing site occupies an area approximately 8,000 meters square. Archaeological excavations produced evidence of three periods of occupation including Initial Woodland, Terminal Woodland, and Historic components. A single date of A.D. 280 + 45 years (Pit-0349), obtained from a Laurel wild rice parching pit, suggests the antiquity of the site utilization.
Because the Big Rice site was in continuous use during the Woodland and Historic periods, disturbance made stratigraphic separation of the components impossible to determine for the upper 33 centimeters of the site. This disturbance resulted mostly from the continual digging and redigging of ricing jigs and parching pits by the occupants of the site. Unfortunately, the recovered copper artifacts were located in the upper deposits; therefore, their affiliation with the Laurel or Terminal Woodland occupations could not be determined.
Of interest, though, is the presence of a large quantity of finished copper tools, a small amount of modified copper, and a complete absence of raw copper. Copper pressure flakers were the most common copper tools recovered from the site. These tools, associated with an abundance of tertiary flakes, suggest that retouching and sharpening of stone tools was a major activity at he Big Rice site. The stages of copper tool manufacturing represented at the site, along with the types of formal tools recovered, indicate that copper tool manufacturing was restricted to tool modification."
During the
summer, Tony (being half Italian and unable to contain himself) confronted our
archaeologist friend who was one of the authors of the article:
"My old
friend", he asked, "did our past conversations have anything to do
with your decision that indigenous people used copper for knapping?"
&
quot;Well,
of course!",
he replied. "As soon as you showed me your tools and suggested it and then
I found those retouching flakes at the site, it was as plain as the nose on
my face. I never did believe those things were punches..."
"Well",
Tony responded, "I didn't see anything about us in the references!"
He mumbled something about that it was just a hobby for us, but
he had to make a living at it. We guess he's right but it sure is fun when someone
listens to you for a change!
The moral of this story for us copper users is: "Relax, fellows. It
is now in the literature and we are verified authentic! If they had it, they
used it!"