Fluted? And just maybe an id?

[Older The Better]

Was looking at the pile of brokes I was given and this sure looks like it was fluted, at least on one side. What do you guys think? And as always an id would be great, but there’s not a lot to go on

 

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[Tdog]

It sure appears to be fluted on side1 and maybe thinning strikes on side2. If what I'm also seeing is the presence of a stem, I wonder whether it is a fluted, lanceolate or ariculate point that was reworked by a later culture?

 

[Older The Better]

Here are some more pics of the base, I thought I saw a stem too but after looking closer, the small notch in the first two pics looks like a single strike. There is no return strike to clean up the other side, makes me think this wasn’t a purposeful break.

The larger “notch” pics 3&4looks more broken than a purposeful removal

So if I’m not mistaken it was a lanceolate point with fluting on one side. Could it be the other flute failed and they had to resort to just thinning the base on that side?

 

[Tdog]

So if I’m not mistaken it was a lanceolate point with fluting on one side. Could it be the other flute failed and they had to resort to just thinning the base on that side?

I agree that the latter pics do appear to say that.

 

[uniface]

Preform rather than point. Good work, gents.

 

[Older The Better]

Preform rather than point. Good work, gents.

I’d believe it

 

[Tdog]

Additional comments... After further scrutinizing the latter pics of the fluted side, it appears that the fluting process took the top off. Based on the "rounded off" appearance at the break across the flute channel, the flute spall took a dive and took the top with it.



Almost forgot... ROLL TIDE!

 

[Older The Better]

Roll away haha my sorry Jayhawks won’t stand in your way. You guys probably have as many losses in the last 10 years as we have wins.... about one to none a year.

 

[uniface]

the fluting process took the top off. Based on the "rounded off" appearance at the break across the flute channel, the flute spall took a dive and took the top with it.

Exactly.

 

[Older The Better]

So on the back could it be that they took a pair of flakes off to create a ridge for the main flute strike to follow?

 

[Tdog]

So on the back could it be that they took a pair of flakes off to create a ridge for the main flute strike to follow?

It was prepared to strengthen it for the first flute for sure I'd bet. Where's a knapper when you need him?!?!

 

[Quartzite Keith]

Speculation: I believe it is one of the Archaic stemmed knife forms that broke late in manufacture. In the third of the first series of pictures, looking at in cross section, he is flat on one face, and domed on the other. To thin the domed side he would need to trim material from the edges to move the edge under the center line of the domed side. This would have wasted width which in a knife you want to keep for re-sharpening. Instead he tried to thin that area with a more risky strategy of coming up from the base. The fourth picture in the second series gives another hint at why he did this. See that seam running perpendicular to the left edge? He couldn't flake across that and instead ran the flute like flake parallel to it. Looks like that flake was either too aggressive, mis-struck, or ran into a hidden defect and the biface broke. I believe the two flakes on the other side are just fairly aggressive basal thinning flakes which are somewhat common on large stemmed points. For example, flute like flakes in the stems of Savannah River or Perdernales type points are not all that uncommon. If it happened like this, though, it should have been found at the manufacturing site, so close to the stone source.