I’m stumped on this broken side notched

[MAMucker]

What you see is approximately 1” wide at the ears and about 1” long. Seems broken midway. The ears and notches are ground. The base is not ground. It has a nicely arched concave base. It has fine serrated teeth along both sides of the blade. It’s crazy thin.

I found it on a sand hill that had been cleared of trees and stripped of loam by a farmer in Plymouth, MA in December 2018. The area is completely disturbed at this time, and I have not found as much as a flake on that hill.

Any thoughts?

 

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[arrow86]

Nice find I can see why your stumped looks like a point from out west

 

[Charl]

Interesting point. The square tangs are classic Otter Creek, but usually the base will be ground, as well as the tangs/ears, and notches. But I've never seen an Otter Creek with serrations. However, there is an overlap in form between Otter Creek and Brewerton Side Notched, and Boudreau notes that "Ritchie believed Otter Creek to be genetically related to the Brewerton Side-Notched type". Boudreau also notes with respect to Brewerton Side-Notched that "faint serrations are seen on rare examples". Also, "two out of three are reported to have basal grinding with some having ground notches". "Notches and tangs are weaker then those seen on Otter Creek points". Regarding overlap between the two types, Boudreau states "this underscores the limitations of typology. Without an Otter Creek date there is no sure way to identify points that fall within the range of overlap". Well, anyway, just food for thought. Nice material, too....

Despite the serrations, the concave base and square tangs most remind me of the base on Otter Creek points....

 

[MAMucker]

Charl, Thanks for digging into this one for me. I’ve looked to the same point types too; and can’t help but feel I’m trying to force this point to fit the type, and ignore glaring (not variance) type features that may stand out as identifiers.

It could be Otter Creek, perhaps fashioned from a flake with anomalous fine features that seem intricately intentional.

-Otter Creeks are generally noted to have the following identification features:

-Medium Large in size - This Point is Small

-Thick - This Point is Extremely Thin

-Side Notched - This Point is Side Notched

-Notches are Prominent - Notches on this point are small and delicate

-Square Tangs - Square Tangs are Present on this point

-Base is concave or straight- This Point has a concave Base

-Shoulders are Tapered to Barbed - This feature is very helpful with identifying the prominent Side Notches of the Otter Creek. The Notches on this point are so small and delicate, it argues gently against the Otter Creek designation.

-Blade is Ovate or Lanceolate, Rarely Triangular - This is an odd feature to designate here. Ovate points are egg shaped. I don’t see relevance. Lanceolate? Triangular - I’m leaning in that direction.

*-Obvious Grinding is to be expected on the Base, Tang Edges, and usually inside the Side Notches - there is NO Grinding on the Base. There is Grinding inside the Notches and along Tang Edges.

Additional to this Points features are:

-There are Prominent Serrations along both sides of the Blade Edges. This feature stands out as a deviation from the data-base. This combined with (and because of) multiple differences does not argue FOR the Otter Creek designation, but only adds to the AGAINST column of the argument.

-The Tangs are Squared, but do not follow the line of plane from the blade down as every sample photo I have found of the type, but they Turn slightly Inward. This stands out as another difference.

A single variation here or there is not a red flag. But, there are too many here.

It is very likely that this point traveled here. I’d like to hear from members from MAINE to compare to similar Otter Creek examples and from other Regions where related types like Big Sandy and Raddatz points have been found.

I’ll post better pictures today.

 

[Quartzite Keith]

It definitely has that Early Archaic vibe to it, doesn't it? Is that one edge beveled? Some relative of Kirk. I agree, Otter Creek and the mid-Archaic side notched forms in general are usually bigger, thicker and seldom serrated.

 

[MAMucker]

Some more photos of the anomaly under various angles of lighting:

here

 

[Charl]

I hear you, MAMucker. It is small for an Otter Creek, and I've never seen one serrated in any case. Here are the metrics for Ritchie's Otter Creek, for reference:

Length range: 57.15-114.3mm. Majority: 69.85-88.9mm
Thickness range: 8-12.8mm Majority: 8-11mm

The above is taken from Boudreau's typology guide. He also shows 50 examples of his own, and here are the metrics for his examples:

Length range: 33.6-116mm Mean: 50.3mm
Width range: 18.8-35.4mm Mean: 25.2mm
Thickness range: 7.3-12.8mm Mean: 9.6mm

Some of his are broken, so the length range is likely skewed on the short end of the range.

Meadowood might be a possibility. They have delicate side notches. Don't see any with concave bases, however. Instead the bases are straight to convex. On the other hand, Ritchie stated the blade edges are occasionally serrated.

 

[MAMucker]

Thanks Charl. I think we are on the same page on this one.

This point has some features that fit in with a few types, but also presents distinct problematic features that definitively deny a match.

The base is the definitive problem when trying to match it to the Meadowood. The same goes for Brewerton Side Notch.

 

[gilmerman]

Most Meadowwoods examples I find, have a straight base but otter Creeks sometimes have a concave base. Probably be guess work on our parts. Not as thin here in Ga. and different lithit material here too.

 

[Out Of Time]

Great thread!