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Vol 5:
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Vol 6:
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THE PLATFORM
-a publication of the Minnesota Knappers Guild-
Editor: Gene Altiere
712 MEDICAL ARTS BUILDING
DULUTH, MN 55802
VOLUME 5, NO. 3
August, 1993
GUILD NEWS
June 26 & 27 marked the 5th Annual Minnesota
Knappers Guild KnapIn at
the Northwest Co. Fur Post in Pine City, MN. As usually happens, there were
a few early arrivals on Friday night. Frank & Linda Bera came early to set
up their fur-trade era campsite. Frank and Linda usually dress in rendezvous
outfits and always add a festive note to the knap-in. On Friday, Jim Regan set
up his aluminum frame/nylon shelter which has served as the primary knapping site
the last two years. Tim Mullin, from South Dakota, was also there early.
This precocious teenager is already
a pretty fair knapper and if he learns to listen more and talk less he could
be a great one! The Hixton Heros, Dick & Jim Grybush from Wisconsin were
also early arrivals and as usual brought a ton of that beautifully frustrating
silicified sandstone known as Hixton quartzite (see the article in this issue
on Silver Mound). Tony Romano is a Pine City resident and along with Jim helped
to set up the Knap-In as well as play host to Jim and the editor while entertaining
guests from Oregon at the
same time! One Oregon guest, Chet Gibson, also got involved with the knap-in
and ended up taking home some of Jim's beautifully crafted copper knapping tools.
Chet owns a mine in Oregon that contains some wonderful American opal.
The editor had an opportunity to knap some of this unique material a couple of
years ago and it produces some very interesting points. George Pelphry came in
from Illinois (with a load of Harvester chert for sale) to round out the early
arrivals.
Saturday brought
beautiful weather and more knappers and a good crowd of interested spectators
who watched the knapping and toured the Fur Post. Minnesota knappers included
Dave Schorn, Rick Krenik, Darrol Schmidt, Vern Lauer and Dale Cannon. Dale's
brother, Rocky Tuck, was the farthest traveled knapper having come in from
Pearblossom, California! Mike McCall, a new MKG member was also there on Saturday
and ended up in a prolonged discussion with Tony Romano regarding the art and
science of mushroom hunting!
Mike is one of Minnesota's foremost fungi experts and Tony just had to "pick"
his brain. Our site host, Pat Schifferdecker, Fur Post manager and
MKG member, was also busy knapping. MKG member, Joe Newbauer, doesn't knap but
he is one of the most knowledgeable artifact collectors in the state and his
penetrating questions and insatiable curiosity constantly kept the knappers in
a state of intellectual agitation. Joe has been a perennial participant at the
knap-ins and his arrival is always
a welcomed event for the knappers. John Waldo is a copper smith from Rosemont,
MN and was there to display his copper-age replicas (nice work, John!).
Archaeologists LeRoy Gonsior and Bob Clouse from the Ft Snelling History Center
were there to aid in the artifact identification booth that was set up for public
participation. As usual there were a number of outstanding artifacts brought
in from the surrounding area.
A large number of door prizes were awarded
and fair amount of buying,
selling and trading of knapping and fur-trade related items along with some atlatl
play added to the activities of both Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately,
the Knap-in had to end for 1993 but we are already planning for June 1994 - see
you there!
****
Well, I finally did it. A trip outside of
Minnesota to visit a Knap-In. My knapping compatriots have been trying to get
me to make this trip for years but it wasn't until this May that I was able to
break away from personal and business
matters to allow for this foray. On May 12, I traveled to Pine City, MN
to the home of Pat & Tony Romano. Readers of The Platform are acquainted
with Tony but the real "saint" in that family is his lovely wife, Pat.
Anyone who can put up with Tony for as many years as she has is a pillar of
patience and sobriety. As they have many times in the past, these two lovely people
(well, one anyhow) acted as gracious hosts and provided bed and board to
yours truly.
Early on Thursday
we drove south to Bethel, MN to Jim & Pat Regan's. Jim had rented a
new Arrowstar van for the five of us and soon we were on I-35 headed for Sibley,
Missouri and Historic Ft. Osage.
As it has now been several months
since we made the trip, the details have become a kaleidoscope of memory fragments
centering around; FOOD - more "all you can eat" places than I
knew existed and two epicures (Romano & Altiere) lamenting the undeveloped
palate of the Spaghettios Kid
(Regan); MUSIC - classical (EA), dirty Spanish (AD) and (are you serious!?) cowboy
songs (JR); ARGUMENTS - when you put two Italians together, normal conversation
is an argument and we apologize to our knapping companions who thought we
were really going to kill one another; KNAPPERS - Val Waldorf (at last, a face
to go with the voice on the phone), D.C. Waldorf (at last, a face to go with
"the book"), John Mondino (he's great, he's Italian!), Ted Frank (a real
gentleman), Steve Behrnes (where
does he get all that stone!), Mike Stafford (no one that young should be
able to reproduce Danish flint technology the way he does), Jim Hopper (he just
got here and he's all sold out!), Don Klyberg (the Texas ambassador), Mike Ash
(this man is so patient and helpful he can make even someone as inept as the editor
feel like he's learning something), George "the blur" Ecklund
R.R.R. (rapid, radical, reduction), Percy Atkinson (you've got to meet him), John
Whittaker (a knapper's archaeologist),
Gene Stapelton (well I'm sorry, I like him), Bob Hunt, Jim Spears
and on and on ; STONE - we're lucky the Arrowstar made it back!
What can
I say other than to quote "Aaaurnie": 'I'll be back!'
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NEW
MEMBERS
New members of the Minnesota
Knappers Guild are KEITH KNUTSON, 7815 AHKLES ROAD, ST. CLOUD, MN 56301-9757,
JEFF OBERLOH, 2216 CIRCLE DR., WORTHINGTON, MN 56187, GEORGE R. PELPHREY,
116 N HIGH, LACON, IL 61540.
Welcome aboard!
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%%%%%%%%%%%LITHIC
"CLUES" %%%%%%%%%%%
by Anthony D. Romano
Over
the last three years, "The Platform" has published several
interesting articles describing Minnesota lithic materials. Obviously, these
articles are of great interest to flintknappers because they identify locally
available rocks that are suitable for knapping. There are, however, other compelling
reasons for knowledgeable
identification of knappable rocks.
Only in recent years has there been
given serious attention by upand-coming archaeologists to rock types used in
stone tool manufacture. In years past, archaeologists often admitted that they
knew very little about lithics. This fact is borne out by the relatively general
lithic terms chosen in many of the site reports such as quartz, chert, flint,
chalcedony, and so forth. New people coming into the field of archaeology like
Leroy Gonsior and Kent Bakken
recognized this lack of understanding and the great void in the literature.
They have taken significant strides in remedying this notable paucity of information
by writing excellent articles and allowing them to be printed in the Platform.
Being
able to identify types and sources of indigenous stone tool
material not only provides many cultural clues, but also generates many informed
questions and educated speculation. Grand Meadow Chert, for example, was an
unknown material in the Pine City,
Minnesota, area until we found the quarry source was in Mower County, southeastern
Minnesota. Now we can say Grand Meadow Chert, heat treated and non-heat
treated, is not uncommonly found in Pine City at least 180 miles distant from
its source. Did prehistoric stone traders travel that far north of the quarry?
Were excursions by indigenous people from the Pine City area made that far
south to obtain the chert, or did it arrive here by way of diffusive cultural contact
(spreading from village
to village)? Matching the typology (style) of a projectile point with a given
material gives us a clue about how long the quarry site was utilized. We speculate
from collections in the Grand Meadow region that lanceolate plano projectile
points made of the local chert were fashioned about 9,000 years ago. Its use
continued through the more recent Cahokia cultural time-period. Which cultures
used the chert in the Pine City area? We must study the artifacts to lean towards
a decision. Much archaic
material has been found in the Winnebago area in the southwestern Minnesota.
These artifacts are made of quartzite stone believed to have come from western
quarries, perhaps in Wyoming. If these stone types can be identified along with
their quarry sites, can we hypothesize a migration route? Does their archaic
typology indicate that people around 7,000 years ago were forced to flee the
known arid conditions on the western plains and migrate to the abundant water in
Minnesota? The clues beg to
be investigated!
It goes without saying artifacts have characteristics other
than just their stone type...namely, their archaeological significance. Flintknappers,
by their very nature, have a deep interest in all things archaeological.
Allow me to site a most pertinent example of the importance of lithic
understanding.
Gunflint Silica is a widely used northeastern Minnesota regional
stone which is very well known to some Minnesota and Canadian archaeologists.
However, many archaeologists
who have spent most of their careers in the southern part of the state are
not familiar with it. It is probably more truthful to say that it has been surprisingly
poorly recognized by many working in the field. For example, in the
middle 1960's, a fluted Clovis point was found in the Reservoir Lake Area north
of Duluth by a man and his wife while they were agate hunting. When they were
told of its great antiquity, the point was sent to the archaeological authorities
at the University of Minnesota
with much excitement. The following is a description of the projectile point:
The
artifact is a basally ground, lanceolate projectile point with
two well-defined flutes. The distal end has been fractured off. If large thinning
flakes were employed in the manufacturing of the artifact, there is no evidence
remaining on the faces. Both the obverse and the reverse faces are covered
entirely by the flutes and regular, parallel percussion flaking reaching from
the edges to the flutes. The
concave base bears small pressure flakes superimposed on the two flute scars.
This flaking is related to bevel preparation before, and basal thinning after
fluting. Projection of the curvature of the edges of the point suggests that
the point was originally 5.75cm long and that one third of the tip end has been
lost. The basal concavity is 2.7mm deep and creates well defined right and left
basal ears. Because the tip end was fractured off at a slight angle, the left
edge of the obverse face of
the remaining two thirds of the point measures 3.72cm long and the right edge is
3.6cm long. Dividing the fractured artifact into fourths, it is 1.7cm wide at
the base, 2.5cm wide at the basal one-fourth level, 2.4cm wide at one half its
length and on verges to 2.3cm wide at three fourths of its length. It measures
2.1cm at its fractured point. The material of which it was made was tentatively
and mistakenly called Montana Moss Agate.
Even though neither party
recognized the point was made
from Gunflint Silica, it was regarded with great interest. However, it was merely
returned in due time to its owners because it apparently had no diagnostic
value. In other words, we did not know what it was made of or where it came form.
Almost twenty-five years later, an amateur archaeologist and flintknapper
who had just learned about Gunflint Silica recalled the Duluth Clovis point and
the material from which it was made. The point was retrieved, reexamined and
resubmitted to the same authorities
explaining it was made of a Gunflint Silica, a regional type of stone. A
more focused interest and investigation was then exerted.
Gunflint Silica
is described as being filled with grains and granules varying in size from extremely
minute to very large. Though the majority of the grains are in the "ground
pepper" size range, smooth bodied granules up to 1mm in diameter
are not uncommon. A broad variation in concentration produces coloration ranging
from transparent to very dark.
Some specimens contain a considerable number of red grains and in some, the
clumping together of large numbers of tiny grains creates irregular masses.
Gunflint Silica is microcrystalline and homogeneous and "works" beautifully
as shown in the superior quality of the knapping on the Clovis described
here.
Further investigation from paleofotonical pollen core samples showed
that the "find site" was in an ice-free tundra corridor existing
in the 11,500 BP era. This corridor
extended northward including the Gunflint Lake area where Gunflint Silica
is commonly encountered. These facts strongly indicate that an 11,000 to 12,000
year old human made an 11,000 to 12,000 year old style projectile point (Clovis)
in a rapidly changing environment 11,500 to 12,000 years ago. And of even
greater interest, it was made of a regional material! As Mason in 1962 in his
classic paper concerning the distribution of Clovis points along glacial margins
in Michigan and Wisconsin stated,
"These parallel distributions, one cultural, the other paleogeographic,
virtually establishes the contemporaneity of man and ice". Thus, for
the first time, Clovis man is associated with glacial margins in Minnesota, thereby
redirecting the previous thinking on this issue.
This significant part
of Minnesota's archaeological past was almost lost forever, but it now resides
in the literature having been accepted and in the process of being published
by the "Wisconsin Archaeologist"...for
only one reason: the fortunate ability to identify a lithic
material!
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THE MISIANO SITE-McDOUGAL
LAKE
Once again MKG members participated in the public open house
at the McDougal lake site in Northeastern Minnesota this year. This is the
fifth consecutive year that guild members have helped the Forest Service with
this project. Supervisory Archaeologist and MKG member Gordon Peters extended
the invitation to Jim Regan, Tony
Romano and the editor (I provide the "wrong way" example - Ed.) to
put on a knapping demonstration for the public and the archaeology staff and
students. Mike McCall, (a new MKG member) and Jim Ramsey (a potential new member)
were present to try to learn more about knapping. Their questions and attempts
at new techniques helped to increase the public's awareness of the amount
of skill and knowledge that is part of the successful knapper's background.
We
reported on the details
of the site in a previous Platform (Vol. 4, No. 4) but more information has been
accumulated since that report. There is speculation that the site may have been
for dugout canoe construction based on the number of tetrahedral adzes found
and the large amount of charcoal in relation to amount of charred animal bones.
But, as we said, this is still speculative and we'll have to wait for a more
detailed report from Dr. Peters.
The bugs were vicious but the weather
cooperated and we had a good day
demonstrating and fielding questions. It is always a little dangerous to knap
around an active archaeological "dig" so significant precautions (including
knapping with obviously "foreign" lithic material) are taken
to insure that our debitage doesn't get mixed in with the real artifacts! Still,
that doesn't always prohibit the mischievous student (or archaeologist!) from
playing little practical jokes with our "ringers". All in all, it
is a good combination of serious
academic study, primitive technology hobby and common interest camaraderie
that occurs at this event each year.
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ARCHAEOLOGICAL
CONSERVANCY
An article in the July 4th Saint
Paul Pioneer Press told the story of the recent purchase of 184 acres of the
Silver Mound site in Hixton, Wisconsin. The land was purchased by the Archaeological
Conservancy (based in New Mexico) and includes 144 acres below the Mound
and 40 acres on top. The Conservancy
reportedly paid $16,000 for the acreage and made the purchase to protect
the site from development. Silver Mound is a 250 foot hill located 50 miles
north of La Crosse, WI, it occupies a 2,000 acre site that is the prime source
for the silicified sandstone known as Hixton quartzite. Points made of this
unique material have been found from Ontario to Missouri and from Kentucky to
the Dakotas. The artifacts made from this material cover the entire time span
from paleo (Clovis) to historic.
No evidence of a permanent village has been uncovered at the site but there
are a lot of campsites that indicate quarry activity from about 12,000 years to
400 years ago. Those interested in visiting the area should contact Jim and Donna
Rankin who own and operate the KOA campground at the base of the hill a few
miles east of Hixton, WI on Wisconsin route 95.
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ADDITIONAL
THOUGHTS ON
ABRADING
by Jim Regan
I found Mike Potter's article on abrading
(Platform Vol 5, No. 2) to be very informative. It got me to thinking about
the whole subject of platforms & abrading again. Even after several years
of flintknapping it never hurts to review the basics from time to time. After
reading Mike's article, I sat down to do some knapping & made some comparisons
of my methods to his description.
For example: I find that I usually
abrade in a direction that is
lengthwise to the edge rather than across the edge. The reason is that if I abrade
across the edge I may detach some small flakes unexpectedly, thereby changing
my platform. By abrading lengthwise there is enough strength to the edge
to allow grinding without altering the shape of my platform.
Mike's comment
about different situations requiring different abraders is very true. I
use pieces of broken grind wheels for abraders. When working on a large biface
I use a large, coarse abrader,
& when working on small or delicate pieces I have another abrader which is
much finer. I might add that the same thing holds true for different types of
material. If I'm working on a softer material, such as heat treated Burlington,
I use a finer abrader than if I'm working with a much harder material like Knife
River Flint. While I'm on this particular subject I might mention that different
materials require different amounts of grinding. Softer material usually
needs to be ground more bluntly
than harder material, in order to transfer the shock wave without crumbling
& causing hinge fractures, step fractures, etc. Still another point worth
mentioning is the differences in abrading due to the style of billet you use.
I generally find that if I'm using antler I'll have a little sharper platform
than if I'm using a copper billet.
Mike also mentioned using the copper
billet to do some rough abrading, thereby saving time. I know lots of knappers
who do this from time to time,
including myself, but I generally try to avoid it. First of all, am I really
in that much of a hurry? Why? I sometimes catch myself taking the quick and easy
way out, at which time I force myself to slow down, prepare the platform carefully,
and then grind it carefully with the proper abrader. In the long run
I'm sure results are more consistent.
One other point I would bring up has
been mentioned in a previous article (Platform, Vol. 2, No. 2), but I think
it has real value. If you wish
to control the amount of grinding dust generated, place your abrader on a sponge
which sits in a shallow pan of water. Whether you knap indoors or outdoors
this technique works well to minimize dust in the air that you breathe.
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LITHIC
RAW MATERIAL RESOURCES IN WESTERN MINNESOTA
PART III
by KENT
BAKKEN
Red River Chert
is the second most common raw material in most of the western Minnesota lithic
region. This name actually covers two kinds of chert, Cathead and Selkirk.
These cherts are usually separately identified in Manitoba, where both occur
in bedrock outcrops. In Minnesota, however, they are mixed in glacial till.
Because they have similar characteristics and distribution, they can be hard to
identify separately. Therefore this single name was coined to cover both materials.
The full range of distribution
for Red River Chert is not clear. It is found in much of southern Manitoba,
eastern North Dakota as well as western and southern Minnesota. It probably
also occurs in parts of eastern South Dakota, central, north central and northeastern
Iowa, although this has not been confirmed by field survey.
Three
varieties of Red River Chert can be described, although the varieties
overlap and a great deal of significance should not be attached to distinguishing
the varieties. All the varieties
are usually white, light brown or light grey; dark grey or dark brown pieces
sometimes occur, although they are rare. In archaeological contexts, RRC
frequently shows a reddish or pink cast. This does not occur in natural cobbles,
and may be taken as an indication of heat treatment. All varieties are usually
highly opaque. Luster is usually dull, sometimes ranging to waxy. The first
variety, which includes the best pieces of RRC, is dense and homogeneous.
The color may be relatively homogeneous,
although mottling, banding, or grainy patterning are also common. This
variety is occasionally found as slabs or nodules in a limestone matrix. The
second, less common variety is coarser and often fossiliferous. The fracture
is irregular and slightly grainy. Some cobbles contain discrete areas of both
fine and coarse grain. There is also a pure white form which has a dull, chalky
appearance and is slightly porous. This is most often found by itself, and
occasionally in the same cobbles
as the first variety. It is the least common of the three grades.
In
the southern part of its range, there are a number of other raw materials which
resemble Red River Chert. For example, some pieces of Prairie du Chien Chert
(Gonsior's 1992) are hard to distinguish from RRC. A number of cherts from
Iowa also resemble RRC.
The flaking quality of Red River Chert can
be very good. However, many RRC cobbles are full of internal cracks. As soon
as they are struck with a hammerstone,
they break into blocky pieces that are too small too further reduce. In
addition, many cobbles are fairly small (egg size, for example), and almost too
small to work with. Occasionally, however, a solid piece of adequate size can
be found. These pieces yield a dense, homogeneous, high quality stone which
is suitable for making any kind of tool, including scrapers.
Tongue
River Silica (also called Arenaceous Chert, Tongue River Silicified Sediment or
"pseudoquartzite")
is a marginal quality raw material. There is more than one variety of TRS. Only
the coarse, yellow/red variety occurs in Minnesota. This type of TRS is found
from west central and central Minnesota to northwestern and north central Iowa,
as well as in eastern South Dakota and much of eastern North Dakota, and possibly
even further west. It apparently does not occur in northern or northwestern
Minnesota or in the Canadian provinces. There do not appear to be any bedrock
outcrops of this material.
In Minnesota, TRS occurs in glacial till.
Tongue River Silica is
highly distinctive and easily identified. Natural cobbles are usually very smooth
and rounded, and the surface may look almost polished. Fracture surfaces have
a fine, grainy sparkle which is difficult to describe but easily recognized
once it has been seen. TRS is apparently a silicified mud or soil, and most pieces
contain hollow, fossil root molds. The color of TRS is also distinctive.
Natural cobbles are usually a
distinctive yellow-ocher color, although weathering may produce a dull red color
on the outer surface and along cracks or roots molds which lead into the rock.
Experiments conducted by Anderson (1978) showed that heat treating turns TRS
a deep red to orange red color.
In its natural state, TRS is very
difficult to knap. The TRS found in archaeological sites is usually heat treated.
Prehistoric knappers rarely used TRS for making scrapers, apparently because
of its marginal quality. It
was, however, commonly used for projectile points and other types of tools.
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