The Middle Archaic - The Mallory Projectile Point Type

 

Figure One - A few Mallory dart points and knife forms from the Author's collection.
All surface found on private land in Wyoming and Colorado. The centerpiece dart point
is 1.6 inches long. A good average age for Mallory is 4,500 years old.     

In my article, I will not use the term “point” 

in a functional sense, but as shorthand for “hafted biface”. 

Also, when I refer to generic "McKean points", I am 

referring to both Lanceolate and Shouldered varieties.   

In my last article on the Middle Archaic on the High Plains, I discussed the McKean Complex and two projectile point styles and types found with McKean cultural materials. Those two projectile point types were McKean Lanceolate and McKean Shouldered. Legacy writers and collectors often refer to the lanceolate-shaped projectile points as simply McKean points and the shouldered projectile points as Duncan and Hanna points. In my discussion below, I will refer to them as McKean Lanceolate points, and Duncan and Hanna points simply as McKean Shouldered points.  

Figure Two - Middle Plains Archaic projectile point types surface found on private land
on the high plains states. From left to right; Oxbow, McKean Lanceolate,
Hanna or McKean Shouldered, Duncan or McKean Shouldered, and Mallory.
Oxbow point is 2.7 inches long. John Bradford Branney Collection.    

There is another projectile point type associated with the McKean Complex that I did not cover in my first article on the Middle Plains Archaic. Archaeologists and collectors call this side-notched projectile point, Mallory (figure 1). In 1933, archaeologist W. D. Strong reported that investigators found side-notched points associated with lanceolate and shouldered points on an isolated mesa called Signal Butte along the North Platte River in western Nebraska. Ultimately, scientists classified those Signal Butte points as McKean Complex from the Middle Plains Archaic time period. 

Compared to McKean Complex type points, Mallory points are an 'odd duck'. When a person handles enough McKean points, they understand how lanceolate-shaped McKean points transitioned into or coexisted with the shouldered varieties of McKean points. However, the Mallory points have a different look and feel about them. Mallory points were quite thin, much thinner than your typical McKean point. Based on my experience, I believe Middle Archaic knappers made McKean points more robust and thicker than Mallory points on purpose. Perhaps, they used the thinner Mallory points for a different functional use beyond just projectile points. Of course, my statement assumes that the same culture who made McKean points made the Mallory points as well. 

Based on my own collection, the workmanship on Mallory points was better than your average McKean point. Anyone who has studied Mallory and McKean points side by side would question whether these point types were made by the same people or by two separate cultures of people, coexisting at the same time. 

Mallory points were thin, wide with deep side notches, and in some cases, a third notch in the center of their bases (figure three). In several examples in my collection, it appears the Middle Archaic flintknappers selected thinner flakes when they made Mallory points. Perhaps, Middle Archaic people used Mallory points as filleting or butchering knives where thinness and sharpness were required attributes. The thinness and fragility of Mallory points are the main reason artifact hunters and archaeologists seldom find them complete and unbroken.

Figure Three - Typical Mallory dart point. 
John Bradford Branney Collection. 

At Signal Butte in the 1930s, McKean styles and Mallory points were found within the same geologic strata at the lowest archaeological level, indicating the two types of points coexisted. Corroborating evidence for the coexistence of Mallory and McKean points at an archaeological site came in the 1970s, eighteen miles north of Sinclair, Wyoming. Amateur archaeologist William E. Scoggin discovered the Scoggin site, a Middle Archaic bison kill, while surface hunting for artifacts in the summer of 1971. The site lies at the foot of a hogback ridge near the edge of Coal Creek Canyon in the Haystack Mountains (figure four). Investigators found the remnants of a corral or pound structure with an extensive bison bone bed, food processing features, and an assemblage of McKean projectile points. Investigators found that two bison kill episodes occurred over a brief period of time. The radiocarbon date of the bone bed was 4540 ±100 years BP, placing it in the Middle Plains Archaic. The discovery of McKean and Mallory projectile points corroborated the radiocarbon date. 

Figure Four - The Scoggin site. Hunters drove the bison 
over the edge of the steep talus slope where at the bottom 
was a fence line. 

The investigators found postholes connected by a low wall of dry-laid flat stones at the base of a steep talus slope seven meters high (figure four). The hunters allegedly drove the bison over the edge of the caprock and down the steep talus slope into the fence line where the hunters dispatched them with spears and darts. The large numbers of McKean and Mallory dart points indicated the manner in which the hunters killed the bison. 

The hunters at the Scoggin used local cherts to make their projectile points. The projectile points at the site showed excellent workmanship, and a few of the points were quite thin with collateral flaking on both sides (atypical for McKean points). The investigation concluded that the hunters at the Scoggin site used Mallory and McKean points during the two bison kill episodes. 

Based on what I have read and seen, I have a theory that Mallory points were more of a southern expression of the Middle Archaic McKean Complex. I have never heard of a Mallory point discovered north of Wyoming and South Dakota, including in Canada. To put things in perspective, just because I have not seen any evidence of Mallory point finds in the northern plains doesn't mean they did not exist there. Collectors might have them in their collections, but have not reported or publicized them. 

I base a lot of my theory on the fact that all of my Mallory artifacts came from the southern half of Wyoming or the northern half of Colorado. The farthest north that I have personally found a Mallory point was the Rattlesnake Hills, west of Casper in central Wyoming. Another collector informed me that he found a Mallory point base near Riverton, Wyoming. I do not believe that the archaeologists even found any Mallory points at the original McKean Complex type site in northern Wyoming.         

Figure Five - A few Mallory points from the author's collection showing variation 
in form and materials. The white basal fragment far left is 1.3 inches long.  

While notched points appear to have simplified and improved the hafting process of stone points onto knife, dart and spear shafts, I know from my fifty years of artifact hunting that notched points also tend to break more often than lanceolate-shaped or more robust stemmed points. This is due to the notches weakening the overall structural strength of the point. I have a lot more Mallory point pieces than I do complete or near-complete points. Any High Plains artifact hunter worth his or her salt can tell you that finding a complete Mallory point is a lot harder than finding a McKean lanceolate or shouldered point. One reason might be because they made a higher quantity of traditional McKean points, but I have no doubt that the Mallory points that they did make, had a tough time surviving due to the notches and thinness. 

Do you think McKean and Mallory points came from the same people? Were there formal or informal sects within the culture using different types of projectile points? If the same people made them both, why did you think the Middle Archaic hunters used different types of projectile points? Was it based on the knappers’ freedom of choice and preference, or was there something else driving the choice? Did notched points serve a different functional purpose than unnotched points in the Middle Plains Archaic? 

We might never know the answers to these questions. The only thing we can conclude at this stage is both Mallory and McKean points are Middle Plains Archaic and that both existed at the same time at least in some instances.   

The historical fiction novels written by John Bradford Branney are known for their impeccable research and biting realism. In the Shadows on the Trail Pentalogy, Branney catapults his readers back into Prehistoric America where they struggle to survive against challenges such as predators, climate, and hostile humans. 

Branney holds a geology degree from the University of Wyoming and MBA from the University of Colorado. John lives in the Colorado mountains with his wife, Theresa. His recently published adventure titled Beyond the Campfire is his eleventh book. 

On the Trail in the Middle Plains Archaic

Figure One - A mixture of McKean Complex projectile point types from the
Middle Plains Archaic. John Bradford Branney Collection.  

 

All dates/ages in my article are uncalibrated radiocarbon years unless otherwise stated. For a date/age estimate in calendar years, add approximately 600 to 800 years.

I am not using the term "point" in my article to describe the artifact's functionality, but as shorthand for "hafted biface". 

For years, archaeologists have been searching for evidence of prehistoric man on the prairies of the High Plains during the period from around 7,000 to 4,500 years ago. During that time frame, evidence of humans is extremely rare. In 1948, Ernst Antevs coined the term Altithermal to represent this time-interval, a period of dramatic climate change resulting in a much hotter and drier environment on the High Plains. 

Archaeological evidence indicates that the Altithermal was perhaps the hottest and driest period of time since the last Ice Age. There is no modern-day analogy for the centuries-long droughts that occurred during the Altithermal. This inhospitable climate was hard on plants, animals, and humans. Prairie grasses withered, water tables lowered, and ponds and streams dried up. With less grass and water, bison herd populations dwindled and the beasts that did survive relocated to ‘greener pastures’ along the Rocky Mountain foothills and the major river systems to the east, such as the Missouri River tributaries. Humans followed the bison herds, abandoning most of the prairies along the High Plains. 

My latest book-- CLICK to Own BEYOND the CAMPFIRE

When bison returned to the plains around 5,000 years ago, the Bison occidentalis species had evolved into Bison bison, the modern species of today. Humans followed the bison herds back onto the High Plains. One of the first groups of humans to return to the prairies was a group of prehistoric hunters and gatherers from what archaeologists named the Oxbow Complex. Archaeological and geological evidence from Oxbow Dam in Saskatchewan placed the Oxbow Complex in the Middle Archaic around 5,200 years ago. Archaeologists and collectors have found evidence of the Oxbow Complex in Saskatchewan, Alberta, Montana, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Nebraska, and northern Colorado. 

The most distinctive artifact from this complex is a side-notched dart/knife form with deep basal indentations and prominent ears (figure two). The concave basal edge separated basal corners or ears that extended downward and outward. Basal thinning was common and light grinding often occurred on the stem edges of most points. 

Figure Two - 2.5 inch long Oxbow dart point made from
Knife River Chalcedony and surface found on private land in
Campbell County, Wyoming. John Bradford Branney Collection. 

Around 4,900 years ago, a different style of projectile point started showing up on the High Plains. The archaeological complex associated with these different projectile points became known as the McKean Complex from evidence found at an archaeological site in Crook County in northeastern Wyoming. 

The McKean Site (48CK7) was originally recorded by the Missouri River Basin Survey of the Smithsonian Institution in 1951. Extensive excavations were conducted at the site in 1951 and 1952. Large quantities of lithic artifacts were recovered, predominantly from two cultural levels which are now designated Middle Plains Archaic. The investigators recovered over one hundred projectile points from these cultural levels.

Investigators at the McKean site found a wide variety of projectile point styles. The initial investigator at the site, Richard P. Wheeler, proposed 'splitting' the projectile point variations into three separate point types. He named three-point types at the McKean site that still survive in the literature today; McKean Lanceolate, Duncan, and Hanna. 

University of Wyoming anthropologist William Mulloy later investigated the McKean site and interpreted the different styles of points as variations along a common theme. Mulloy proposed 'lumping' all three-point types into one single point type called McKean. 

Today, some of us split the McKean Complex points into two separate projectile point types; McKean Lanceolate and McKean Shouldered. These Middle Archaic points either have shoulders or they don't. Personally, I do not see much benefit in differentiating between the Hanna and Duncan types. Some points fit well within Duncan or Hanna, but many McKean Shouldered points morphologically fall in between.      

There is another Middle Plains Archaic point type not found at the McKean site but later associated with McKean points called the Mallory point. I will discuss Mallory in my next article. 

Figure Three - McKean Lanceolate points from the author's collection. 

Middle Archaic flintknappers made the McKean Lanceolate point type with convex blade edges that were slightly narrower at the base than in the middle. The base of the McKean Lanceolate point was indented, sometimes so deeply indented that it appeared to be a notch. Stem edges were NOT ground. In outline, McKean Lanceolate points look like some of the earlier point types, but morphologically they could not be more different than each other. While a few McKean points show good workmanship, most were asymmetrical with random flaking patterns.   

  

Figure Four - McKean Shouldered points from the author's collection. 

These were previously broken down into two-point types;

Duncan and Hanna.  John Bradford Branney Collection, 

The Middle Archaic flintknappers made the McKean Shouldered point type (figure four) with triangular blades with straight to slightly convex edges and angular to sloping shoulders. The point type had straight to slightly expanding stems with a v-shaped notch in the base. The points varied from shallow, angular shoulders to expanding stems with rounded or lobed corners. Blade edge notches were broad and shallow. Stems were seldom ground.

Figure Five - McKean geographic distribution
from www.projectilepoints.net. 

  

What was the typical lifestyle in the Middle Plains Archaic? 

The Middle Plains Archaic was a different lifestyle than the previous Early Plains Archaic people who abandoned the prairies at the beginning of the Altithermal. The McKean Complex, representing the Middle Plains Archaic spread quickly across the High Plains. These Middle Plains Archaic hunters and gatherers brought with them a new adaptation model that relied more on the seasons of the year for subsistence activities. Grinding stones for processing wild plants increased in quantity and roasting pits, sometimes used for centuries, were developed and extensively used. Across the High Plains, the quantity of stone circles increased substantially in the Middle Plains Archaic. The people most likely used these stone circles to hold down the bases of their tipis or lodges, although the stone circles appeared to have other purposes as well. Although bison were still an important dietary component within the Middle Plains Archaic lifestyle, smaller mammals and reptiles were also important.

John Bradford Branney holds a geology degree from the University of Wyoming and an MBA from the University of Colorado. He held various positions in the energy industry during his thirty-four-year career before he took up writing full-time. John has published eleven books and many magazine articles on prehistoric America and life in general. John lives in the Colorado mountains with his wife, Theresa, three German Shepherds, and an ex-feral cat

His latest book, Beyond the Campfire, takes place on the Pleistocene high plains of North America. 

Paleoindian Point Typology - Part Four - Firstview Versus Midland?

Figure One - 2.45 inch long Paleoindian projectile point type surface found on private land in Cheyenne County, Colorado.
Is it a Firstview or a Midland point? That is my question. John Bradford Branney Collection. 

For a long time, I have thought that this 2.45 inch long Paleoindian projectile point surface found in Cheyenne County, Colorado in figure one was a Firstview dart point made by Cody Complex people ca. 9400 B.P.  

Some of you might be asking 'what is a Firstview projectile point'?  Here is a brief description and background.   

In 1957, amateur archaeologist Jerry Chubbuck discovered a Paleoindian site while arrowhead hunting along a tributary of the Big Sandy Creek in Cheyenne County, Colorado. He brought the site to the attention of archaeologist Joe Ben Wheat from the University of Colorado Museum. Dr. Wheat did not have a chance to investigate the site until April 30, 1958. In the meantime, archaeologist H.M. Wormington suggested that Jerry Chubbuck and fellow arrowhead hunter Sig Olsen dig a few test pits near the exposed bonebed. Once Wheat freed up his schedule, Chubbuck and Olsen relinquished their digging permit to the University of Colorado Museum. A few of the projectile points surface found by Jerry Chubbuck are in figure two. Do you see the resemblance between these points and my Firstview projectile point in figures one, three, and four?  

Figure Two - Gerry Chubbuck Firstview projectile points from the
Olsen-Chubbuck bison kill site in Cheyenne County, Colorado. 

Chubbuck originally classified his points as Scottsbluff and Eden points from the Cody Complex. Quite honestly, I would classify his points as Scottsbluff and Eden projectile points even today! I am not sure the world needed the Firstview projectile point type. 

As late as 1967, Joe Ben Wheat classified the projectile points from the Olsen-Chubbuck bison kill site as Scottsbluff, Eden, and Milnesand. By 1972, Wheat modified his original taxonomy for the projectile points and designated them as a new projectile point type called Firstview (Wheat 1972).  

Wheat described the dominant style of points found at the Olsen-Chubbuck site as lanceolate or leaf-shaped, full-bodied points. He stated that the stems on some of the Firstview projectile points were produced by heavy edge grinding. He described the basal edge as predominately straight and mostly wedge-shaped. He defined the projectile point range from broad points with flattened lenticular cross sections to relatively narrow points with diamond-shaped cross sections. He noted that the points had extremely fine and excellent workmanship. I wonder why Wheat changed his mind from originally fitting these points into the existed projectile point typology of Scottsbluff, Eden, and Milnesand to defining a whole new point typology named Firstview?      

   

Figures Three and Four - Side B and profile 

of my 2.45 inch long Paleoindian projectile point.
Is it a Firstview?    

My projectile point in figures one, three, and four does have characteristics from the Firstview projectile point type description, but is that the only projectile point type that it resembles? 

Please, keep reading.

CLICK for SHADOWS on the TRAIL

Figure Five - Cast of the Midland projectile
point used as the type. 

My Firstview projectile point above in figure one would also fit within the Midland Paleoindian point typology. Figure five is a cast of the original point that became the Midland projectile point type from the Scharbauer site near Midland, Texas. An amateur archaeologist by the name of Keith Glasscock discovered fossilized human bone in a sand blowout six miles southwest of Midland, Texas. He had been finding Folsom projectile points and other points that resembled Folsom projectile point but without flutes. He reported the site to archaeologist Fred Wendorf who originally called these points 'unfluted Folsom points'. Marie Wormington was the first archaeologist to coin the name Midland projectile point type.  

Greg Perino (1985) describes Midland points as small, flat points that resemble Folsom but with less basal indentation, and in some cases straight bases. Bruce Bradley (2010) expanded on the definition by stating that Midland points have wide, but relatively flat flake scars and very flat cross sections. He stated that flaking may be pressure, but for the most part Midland points appear to have finely controlled percussion flaking. He stated that Midland knappers finished their points with non-invasive, abrupt continuous marginal retouch which narrowed the pieces so that negative bulbs and thinning flakes were eliminated. 

Figure Six shows my Firstview projectile point (middle point) in a line up with a few of my Midland projectile points. Do you see similarities between the Firstview and the Midland points? How about differences? 

Figure Six - 2.45 inch long Firstview projectile point in center, surrounded by
High Plains Midland projectile points. John Bradford Branney Collection.  

   

Now the big question. Is my projectile point a Firstview or a Midland or something else altogether? It makes no difference to me whether it is a Firstview or a Midland. Both are desirable projectile points. Midland projectile points are a thousand or so years older than Firstview projectile points. I am going to leave it up to you. What type is my projectile point?                        

Bradley, Bruce A
2010   Paleoindian Flaked Stone Technology on the Plains and in the Rockies in Prehistoric Hunter-             Gatherers of the High Plains and Rockies by Marcel Kornfeld, George C. Frison and Mary                   Lou Larson.     

Perino, Gregory
1985   Selected Preforms, Points, and Knives of the North American Indians - Volume 1.

Wheat, Joe Ben
1972    The Olsen-Chubbuck Site in American Antiquity, Volume 37, Number 1, Part 2.   

SOON to be RELEASED in SEPTEMBER 2020

Call It Glendo or Pelican Lake, It Doesn't Matter a Hill of Beans

By John Bradford Branney

Figure 1 – One of the finest Glendo, a.k.a. Pelican Lake spear points ever found in Wyoming. It is 4.2 inches long and made from Big Horn Chert. The author did not find this point, but he is more than happy to curate it for the rest of his life. This point was surface recovered on a private ranch in the early 1950s in Johnson County, Wyoming along the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains. 

John Bradford Branney Collection.

I took an interest in prehistoric artifacts at a very young age sometime around five years old. I remember that moment of inspiration vividly because of the memory of our home in Casper, Wyoming where we lived in the early 1960s. Based on the timing, I was just about ready to start kindergarten at the local Catholic school. For the first time, my mother showed me my grandfather’s prehistoric artifact collection in the unfinished basement of that home. I remember a feeling of joy and wonder as my mother unwrapped each spear point, arrow point, and knife form from its cotton shroud. At the age of five, I already had a hankering for cowboys and Indians as most boys did, so the artifacts were right up my alley. 

Of course, I did not know what any of them were at the time, but it was still the most interesting thing I had run across in my five years on the planet. I had never met my grandfather, but my mother told me he found most of the artifacts around our homestead north of Moneta, Wyoming in the 1930s. She said that when she was a girl, her family would head out to the homestead on weekends and one of the things my grandfather did was hunt artifacts with my mom’s brothers. There was little else to do at a ranch without electricity or running water. Back in those days, that area of Wyoming was prime artifact hunting, as was most of Wyoming. 

It wasn’t too much longer after seeing the artifacts for the first time that I convinced my older sister (she was pushing eleven years old) to show me the artifacts again. Unbeknownst to our parents, we went to the basement and she maneuvered a chair under the shelf. The shoebox with the artifacts was on the very top shelf (to keep us, kids, out of them). I remember my sister standing on that chair, reaching for the shoebox. She held that heavy shoebox out in front of her, but she hadn’t thought through how she was going to get off the chair. The chair wobbled and she let go of the shoebox. The shoebox plummeted like the safe in a Roadrunner cartoon. Down it fell from about six feet off the ground and smashed into the concrete floor, breaking many of the priceless artifacts. My sister received most of my parents' wrath. I got off easy since I was a tiny tyke.   

Our family moved to eastern Wyoming when I was in the second grade. I found my first prehistoric

Figure 2 - 1.35-inch-long arrow or dart point found near 

third base in my youth. As far as a projectile 

point type, this one is a strange duck.

 arrow point when I was around nine years old. I was playing third base for my little league team and I happened to look down at the ground and there was an arrow point made from a caramel-colored jasper (figure 2). Nine years old and my parents had already drilled into me ‘what is right’ and ‘what is wrong’. An angel on one shoulder told me I had to ask my fellow players if they had lost an arrowhead while the devil on my other shoulder told me to “stuff the arrowhead into my pocket and don't say a word.” The angel won that battle. I held my breath and asked (slightly above a mumble) if anyone had lost an arrowhead and my teammates were honest and said no. Fantastic! To this day, I am still not sure what projectile point type that artifact is. After finding that first artifact in such a peculiar place, it became 'Katy bar the door' as far as hunting artifacts. Everywhere I went, my eyes were glued to the ground. Over the years, I have found some artifacts in some pretty strange places. Artifact hunting became a family hobby since there was not a lot to do in the outback of Wyoming.

Growing up, I owned three books on artifacts, all gifts from my mother. Back then, there were no Amazon or Barnes and Noble or internet or anywhere else to find out what kind of books existed on

Figure 3 - My childhood artifact library. 

the planet, especially living in the outback of Wyoming. In my neck of the woods, anyone who owned three books on any one subject was most likely a ‘local expert'. The first book my mother bought me was Virgil Russell’s book Indian Artifacts. My mom and dad grew up in Casper and Virgil taught school there. Virgil was well known around small-town Casper as “that guy who was crazy about arrowheads”. Over the years, I have read different parts of that book hundreds of times. The book has photos of some of the most beautiful artifacts and collections ever found or assembled. It also has good information for the beginning collector. If you have a chance to ever pick up a used copy of this book, it might be well worth it just for nostalgia sake.

Another book I had in my library was H. M. Wormington’s classic book titled Ancient Man in North America. That was more of a scholarly book and it covered much of North America. When I read it, I was mostly interested in my region, so I read about Lindenmeier, Finley, Horner, Agate Basin, and other high plains archaeological sites. Marie Wormington was one of the first archaeologists to push the effort to break the catchall projectile point type called Yuma into specific projectile point types such as Plainview, Allen, Agate Basin, Angostura, Cody Complex, etc. She also did an excellent job describing these different Paleoindian projectile point types. Several books have replaced her Ancient Man in North America since 1957, but even today Wormington’s book might be outdated but is still a relevant classic.

My third book was Stone Artifacts of the Northwestern Plains by amateur archaeologists Louis C. Steege and Warren W. Welsh. In my early years, I wore out three of these books. Luckily, they were only $3.95 each. The book taught me high plains projectile point typology and how to catalog my finds. This book is still a classic. This is where my story begins.

Figure 4 - “Glendo” point surface finds from my youth. All found in Niobrara and 

Goshen Counties, Wyoming. John Bradford Branney Collection.  

Growing up, I found quite a few barbed corner-notched points like the ones in figure 4. In their book, Steege and Welsh called these barbed corner-notched points Glendo points after examples found by archaeologist William Mulloy around Glendo, Wyoming in the mid-1950s when he and others were doing archaeological work prior to the construction of Glendo Reservoir. It wasn’t until 1983 when I read George Frison’s influential work titled Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains that I discovered archaeologists were not calling these barbed corner notched points Glendo. They were referring to them as Pelican Lake after examples originally identified by B. Wettlaufer in 1955 at the lower level of the Mortlach site in southern Saskatchewan, Canada. I am not sure whether Mulloy and Wettlaufer were communicating at the time since their discoveries probably represent the same projectile point type. Communication in the 1950s was a lot more primitive than it is today, need I say more.  

Back in 1961 when Steege and Welsh published their book, they described Glendo; “The distinguishing feature of this type is the corner notching, which varies from quite shallow and broad to form a slightly expanded stem and hooked shoulder, to a fine deep notch which forms an expanded stem with pronounced barbs.” That description describes Pelican Lake just as well. Even today, some of us ‘old timers’ might refer to a Pelican Lake point as a Glendo point, especially if the point was found along the Hartville Uplift of Wyoming. Old habits are hard to break. Call ‘em Glendo, call ‘em Pelican Lake, it really doesn’t matter a hill of beans! 

Figure 5 - Need a fun diversion from the troubles of the world? 

Read one of my latest books titled SAND and SAGE for a jolly good time. 

Available at Amazon.com in paperback and e book.  

 

SAND and SAGE - Wyoming Ultrathin Knife Form

Figure One - Side A of four-inch-long ultrathin knife form surface found on private land in 

Fremont County, Wyoming in 1904. John Bradford Branney Collection. 

The provenance of a prehistoric artifact is just as important as the artifact itself, maybe more so. A prehistoric artifact without the detailed information about its discovery is just a pretty rock. A pretty rock might bring good money at a collectors’ auction, but without the who, what, when, where, and how; it means very little from a historical perspective. I believe that as a collector, I am responsibile for documenting my prehistoric artifacts and fossils to the best of my ability. Every artifact in my collection is cataloged with as much detail as I have as to material type, artifact type, county, state, my site description, section, township, range, finder, length, and width.

Figure Two – Profile view of  four-inch-long ultrathin knife form surface found on private land in Fremont County, Wyoming in 1904. John Bradford Branney Collection.

I started cataloging my finds on index cards when I was a very young pup in Wyoming and I have done so for the thousands of artifacts I have found or acquired in the past fifty years. I learned at an early age that memory is never a substitute for ink. When I became a middle-aged dog, I transferred all the information from the hundreds of index cards I had to an Access database where I now have the entire collection doumented. Wherever my complete collection ends up (which I am currently in the process of deciding), the database and index cards and all other relevant information goes with it. The next curator of my collection will have every known detail for every artifact in my collection. Documentation is the only true scientific and historical value to any prehistoric artifact collection.

Figure Three - Side B of four-inch-long ultrathin knife form surface found on private land 

in Fremont County, Wyoming in 1904. John Bradford Branney Collection.   

As an example, I acquired this four-inch-long paleo ultrathin knife form for my collection (figures one through three). I purchased it because its provenance indicated that it came from an area where I was interested. This ultrathin knife form came with a specific and precise handwritten provenance and I want to preserve the artifact history for eternity. Many times I have seen beautiful artifacts but they lack good information as to the artifacts' provenance. 

The finder of this ultrathin knife form (name withheld)  surface found this artifact in 1904 in Fremont County, Wyoming. It impressed me that after 116 years this artifact still had its original provenance. The knife form's provenance is so clear and concise that today I could walk right up to the discovery location 116 years later. Someday, I might just do that.

The artifact is aesthetically beautiful, don’t you think? The true value of this artifact is its provenance. It is up to me to pass on its provenance to the artifact's next curator.           

My latest book SAND and SAGE - CLICK LINK to ORDER