Glass Point

[Neanderthal]

I did remember to take this pic the other day of an authentic Calapooya glass point. The glass point is located in the far right center part of this display. It is flaked well (to the center), just like the obsidian points. This was collected in the 1940's by Ruby Kenworthy in coastal northern California. It is made of clear glass and is pretty typical, late historic Calapooya triangular form. There are a few more glass points, even a green glass Gunther point that I'll get a pic of sometime if I can remember.

 

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[mamabear]

Now this I can understand. that is a great display of artifacts. the posts I saw before, looked like the shards from a glass I dropped. worked glass, huh? nice. but then obsidian is just a natural glass.

 

[Neanderthal]

Now this I can understand. that is a great display of artifacts. the posts I saw before, looked like the shards from a glass I dropped. worked glass, huh? nice. but then obsidian is just a natural glass.

The Calapooya and several of their neighbors were notorious for making points out of glass, or anything they could get their hands on. Needless to say, they aren't very old.

Obsidian is indeed volcanic glass. What's intriguing is how often material was a matter of preference, rather than only knapability. Take the Calapooya for instance, they typically made their points out of obsidian. However, some of their very close neighbors (such as Gunther) prefered colorful agates and chalcedony. Below is a picture of some of the Gunther variants. The picture does not do the display justice at all, some are the finest of the type that you can hope to see. The longer ones are what's termed "beach points", and they can attain over 3" in length. The green is gem quality Franciscan chert, some opaque, others translucent.

 

[uniface]

Un-Be-Lucking-Feaveable.

 

[Neanderthal]

In that Gunther pic, the second row up from bottom, 7th point from the left hand side, that point is made of green glass. I will see if I can get individual shots of it sometime, as well as others..

 

[*Molly*]

Ppl rant & rave about Clovis's, they have nothing on the Gunthers. The work that goes into those babies is outstanding. Matt I know you too favour this type, it's understandable. I have two so far. I'll not be spending money on anything BUT Gunthers. I intend on having a frame like that one day..
Sheer eye candy.
Thanks Matt.

Molly.

 

[Airborne80]

Those are beautiful!!! I would love to find something like that. I think these are the kind of points that folks expect when they see a heading related to "Glass points" but they are not found in Virginia. The stuff that I find that I think MAY be glass points are not ornate by any stretch. I believe as I have said that they were expedient tips made to be used once or twice then lost while fishing the shallow waters at the site. That is because the same size and shape is repeated (basic triangle with one shoulder) over and over and they all wash up at high tide and are fond when the tide recedes. Anyway... thanks for this informative post.