Prehistoric Burins and the SHADOWS on the TRAIL Pentalogy

Figure One. Scottsbluff knife form from Wilson County, Texas. The most interesting feature 
of this, 10,000 years plus beauty, is its burinated tip.
John Bradford Branney Collection.  

A prehistoric burin is a specialized, chisel-like stone tool created by driving a flake or flakes off the edge of another flake, biface, or blade to produce a ninety-degree edge for working hard substances such as ivory, antler, and bone. The sharp corners created by the burin were so useful that prehistoric knappers deliberately made them. The removed edge fragment is called a burin spall.

In the knapping process called burination, a small, relatively thick flake is removed from a flake, blade, or biface using a snapped termination or previous burination scar as the knapping platform. Burination can also be used to remove a sharp edge for the safe handholding of a knife form. Burination was extremely common in the “Old World” Paleolithic of Europe, Siberia, and Beringia. Paleoindians in North America also made and used burins. For some reason, it appears that the Clovis culture only used burination in rare instances, but it became quite popular during Folsom and Cody Complex times. Most of my stone tools with burins came from my Folsom and Cody Complex sites.

Figure Two. Burin tip (B) of the Scottsbluff knife form
photographed in figure one. The 'stop notch' (N) ensured
that the burin flake did not travel too far down the edge of
the biface or into the body of the biface. 

Figure one is a photograph of a 3.7 inch long Scottsbluff knife form, made from Edwards Chert and found on private land in Wilson County, Texas. This artifact is Early Archaic with an approximate age of 10,000 years. The knife form had two or three resharpenings that have reduced its overall length, but the most interesting feature of this Scottsbluff knife form is its tip (figure two). The tip of the knife form at some time was pressure flaked into a burin tip (an engraver) and was re-tipped two more times. Burination strengthened the tip of the Scottsbluff knife form exponentially, keeping the edge from crushing and failing while engraving hard objects.

Most burins and burin spalls are unspectacular features. Most people do not even recognize them. Caution has to be applied when differentiating an impact fracture from a burin. Not every missing sliver off an artifact is a burin! Finding impact fractures on an artifact is far more common. Usually, after I post artifacts with burins, I receive a rush of requests to look at people's artifacts who think they might have burins. Identifying burins from photographs is difficult at best. It is best to have the artifact in hand so that you can feel the edges for use wear and examine the artifact. All of my artifacts that I claim to have burins have gone through thorough examination and scrutiny.       

Figure Three. My heart was pounding!

Figure three is an in situ photograph of a Scottsbluff (Cody Complex) point half-buried in the sandy creek bottom at my SHADOWS on the TRAIL site in northern Colorado. The day was August 23, 2008, when I spotted this Scottsbluff point lying in the sand. It took my breath away and my heart pitter-pattered. It was obvious what it was, but the tip was buried. The square base and the flaking pattern were definitely Cody Complex. After a somewhat extended photoshoot, I pulled the Scottsbluff point out of its sandy grave. My heart sank when I saw that an impact fracture had taken off the tip of the point.   

Figure Four. Scottsbluff point with a blunted tip.  

I yelled out the PG-13 version of "DRAT!". Quite frankly, even though I had found a tremendous artifact I was disappointed because of the broken tip. My first reaction was that this beautiful 2.8 inch-long Scottsbluff point ended its useful life by hitting bone or rock and fracturing its tip. I pocketed my find and went back to hunting for the rest of the day. It wasn't until I got home later that night and had a chance to study the point that I realized that the original Scottsbluff point was probably decommissioned because of an impact fracture and the creative Cody Complex knapper recommissioned the point into a stone tool by intentionally creating a double-sided burin for use in scraping wood and hides (figure five).

Figure Five. Twin burin edges with a chisel tip. 

My interpretation of the history of this Scottsbluff point goes something like this; The maker of this Scottsbluff point used a dendritic jasper as the raw material. The dendritic jasper looks like some of what I find on the Hartville Uplift of Wyoming. The finished projectile point at some stage suffered damage to its tip. Instead of repairing the projectile point, the Cody Complex knapper refurbished the broken point into a knife form with double burins. He or she removed burin spalls on both sides of the impact fracture (figures five and six). Then the innovative knapper created a chisel-like edge on the rounded tip. He or she could have used this Scottsbluff knife form as a burin, knife, scraper, and chisel for use on meat, bone, wood, and hides.

Figure Six. Chisel tip is well polished.  

The raw material at the tip of this Scottsbluff knife form has a different color and texture than the rest of the artifact. I attribute this to polish or use-wear from the way its owner used it.  There is evidence that the  owner might have re-tipped or repaired the chisel and burins once or twice since that area of the knife form has a different flaking pattern than the rest of the biface.          

Another important feature about burins when found in Paleoindian contexts, they seldom show use wear on the edge near where the burin spall detached in front of the striking platform. Instead, use-wear is usually found on the edge adjacent to the striking platform or tip. In the case of this last Scottsbluff point, the most use wear was at or near the tip.

So, there you have it. A couple of Cody Complex burin examples. You will have to read the SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL Pentalogy to see how the Folsom Complex used burins. All the information needed to order your copies of my book series is below. 

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V is for Pleistocene Violence and S is for SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL!

CLICK THIS LINK for SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL

What was the Pleistocene like for humans around 10,700 years ago? In the SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL I wrote about what I thought life was like for a particular tribe of Paleoindians called the Folsom People. I believe prehistoric humans not only had to deal with the large and fierce predator animals of the Pleistocene, but also predatory humans, as well. You might disagree with my last point, but the evidence from some of the prehistoric skeletons found would indicate that it was not one big happy human family in Prehistoric America. You might also have the opinion that there were so few humans around ten thousand years ago, that the chances of different tribes coming together was slim and when they did meet, why would they be hostile, there were enough resources for everyone!  

2000 B.C. Cain and Able were a different time
and place than SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL,
but human nature was the same.

My belief is that violence and coveting thy neighbor's belongings is inherent in humans' nature and always has been, even at the dawn of human time. Below is a passage from SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL, in which a tribe of humans called the Mountain People want what another tribe has and the Mountain People will resort to violence to obtain it. I hope you enjoy. 
       
To'sarre watched Ei Hanit disappear over the hill and then led the other two warriors back up to the boulder on the hill so that they could watch the village. The people in the village kept up their festivities at the campfires until the moon was high in the sky and then one after another they retired to their tipis for sleep. The last person went to sleep in early morning, leaving just two sentries sitting at a campfire. To'sarre pushed away from the boulder and walked quietly towards the warriors’ camp. As he walked, he blew hard into his hands trying to warm them up. It was a cold summer night and not a good night to be without a campfire. To'sarre found Ei Hanit asleep, lying against the base of a large boulder. To'sarre reached out with his left hand, touching the shoulder of Ei Hanit. All of a sudden, To'sarre’s forearm felt excruciating pain when Ei Hanit’s right arm flew up from his lap, driving To'sarre’s arm up into the air. Then as quick as a rattlesnake, Ei Hanit’s left hand gripped To'sarre’s throat and pulled him close to his face.

“What do you want?” Ei Hanit hissed.

“It is almost dawn and the people in the village will be moving about,” To'sarre replied, struggling to speak through his constricted windpipe.

“Gather the warriors on the hill,” Ei Hanit said, shoving To'sarre away.

On the hill, Ei Hanit and To'sarre looked down on the village. The village was completely dark, except for the flames coming from one campfire.

“Two sentries at that campfire,” To'sarre said. “No wolf dogs to warn them.”

“Send our two best warriors to kill the sentries, quietly,” Ei Hanit ordered. “Then attack from this side of the village. The river will prevent them from escaping to the north. Go tipi by tipi and kill everyone except women and children. They can carry our plunder and be our slaves.”

“What about the old?” To'sarre asked.

“Kill them all,” Ei Hanit replied.

To'sarre nodded to Ei Hanit and turned to leave. Ei Hanit grabbed him by the arm and demanded, “Kill them quietly!”

To'sarre crept down the backside of the hill. To'sarre understood why the Mountain People needed food and supplies from other villages, but he could not understand killing people for the sake of killing. However, To'sarre knew better than to ignore Ei Hanit’s orders, otherwise, Ei Hanit would have him and his family killed.





You are going to have to read SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL to find out what happens next, but I can guar-an-tee you that what happens will both surprise and shock you. 
 


Once you have read the SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL, then you can read the rest of the trilogy and JOIN THE ADVENTURE!