Jaspers of the Northeast US

[smokeythecat]

This is just a short topical bit on jaspers found in he northeast US. The best jasper comes from a place called Vera Cruz, PA, near Allentown. It has been known to the American Indians since paleo times and now there is a little park at the mine itself. Points made of this material have been found even a couple hundred miles from the source. There are smaller jasper occurrences in neighboring Maryland and Delaware. In Delaware there is a Newark Jasper, near that town. In Maryland there is a Carsins Run Jasper from a small area in Harford County. And back to Pennsylvania, near Wrightsville, there is another outcropping along the Susquehanna. That jasper is much lower quality, and not nearly as nice as the others.

Here are some pics. Some of these I found, some not. Two bifacial knives, paleo and a big core of the Vera Cruz Jasper.

Paleo hand ax I found in the '70's in Edgewood, MD. The site is now covered by a big box store.

More Vera Cruz Jasper tools and points. The points are, in order an archaic Susquehanna Broadspear, clovis, and Kirk corner notched. I have another Susquehana Broadspear here somewhere and a woodland triangle.

 

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[Edgychris1]

This is just a short topical bit on jaspers found in he northeast US. The best jasper comes from a place called Vera Cruz, PA, near Allentown. It has been known to the American Indians since paleo times and now there is a little park at the mine itself. Points made of this material have been found even a couple hundred miles from the source. There are smaller jasper occurrences in neighboring Maryland and Delaware. In Delaware there is a Newark Jasper, near that town. In Maryland there is a Carsins Run Jasper from a small area in Harford County. And back to Pennsylvania, near Wrightsville, there is another outcropping along the Susquehanna. That jasper is much lower quality, and not nearly as nice as the others.

Here are some pics. Some of these I found, some not.View attachment 1928324 View attachment 1928323 Two bifacial knives, paleo and a big core of the Vera Cruz Jasper.

View attachment 1928325 Paleo hand ax I found in the '70's in Edgewood, MD. The site is now covered by a big box store.

More Vera Cruz Jasper tools and points. The points are archaic Susquehanna Broadspears.View attachment 1928326View attachment 1928327View attachment 1928328View attachment 1928328View attachment 1928329

Thanks for the info smokeythecat.
I was wondering about that recently. I see some of the Jasper come from the south, little but jelly of that material.
So PA/Ny seems to be the closest place to me that holds raw Jasper. I would love to come by one traded along the way or any Jasper in my neck of the woods.

Thanks again

 

[Charl]

In southern New England, the Jack’s Reef people preferred jasper above all other lithics. Most of the jasper was sourced from Pa. But, in the late 90’s, prehistoric workings of jasper was discovered in the Lime Rock district of Lincoln, RI. Such jasper had long been collected by mineral collectors, my wife and I included, at the Conklin Limestone Quarry in Lime Rock, until the deep open pit mine finally flooded.

People had long wondered if Rhode Island jasper had been used prehistorically. Now we know it was. Interestingly, Rhode Island Lime Rock jasper is visually indistinguishable from Pa. jasper. Only destructive chemical testing can distinguish RI from Pa. jasper.

Here is the story of the discovery of prehistoric workings of Lime Rock jasper in Rhode Island, another prehistoric source of jasper in the Northeast:

https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1169&context=bmas

Here is a nice piece collected at the Conklin quarry:

Shown with a personal find scraper from RI. Is the scraper RI jasper, or Pa jasper? No way to know by eyeballing...

Another piece we collected at the Conklin Quarry years ago, showing both gold and brown coloration...

Many miles south of Lime Rock, on Narragansett Bay, a glacial cobble, no doubt of Lime Rock jasper....

Sorry, do not know why my post also included thumbnails. Until I figure it out, guess that will happen each time I post photos. Must be related to the recent discussion of photo posting problems, but I do not yet know how to correct it...

 

[smokeythecat]

Nice add. The Vera Cruz jasper has been found in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, northern Virginia that I know of. I haven't seen any found farther away than that, but who knows.

 

[Edgychris1]

Charl,
That's awesome!
I really like that post

 

[ToddsPoint]

When I was knapping in the 90's I ran into some guys from Bucks County PA that had tons of nice jasper. They were building houses in a new addition and the construction crews were digging out the jasper where foundations would be. I might still have a piece or two. Chipped nicely after being cooked. Don't know if the abo's used it or not. I'll see if I can find it and post it here. Gary

 

[MAMucker]

I really appreciate lithic review and illustration. Great material photos and history. I believe some of this material in (Pebble form) can be found along the northeast coastline and in the glacial till, though in scarce quantity.

Here?s a March (2021) find that I didn?t post. I believe it?s a Jack?s Reef. It?s the only artifact that I have found made of Jasper. It was clearly exposed to heat.

 

[Charl]

Here are a few jasper points we found in RI. We don’t find much jasper, and can never find enough. Sometimes with translucent chalcedony veins. Visually, no way of knowing if the source was Pa. or RI. There was one study of jasper found at Ma. sites, a study done prior to the discovery of prehistoric jasper workings in Rhode Island. The study included a map of jasper sources in the Northeast:

https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1146&context=bmas

 

[smokeythecat]

With that veining, it doesn't much look like the Vera Cruz jasper from PA, the Newark Jasper from Delaware or the Carsins Run Jasper in MD. Looks very nice though.

 

[Charl]

With that veining, it doesn't much look like the Vera Cruz jasper from PA, the Newark Jasper from Delaware or the Carsins Run Jasper in MD. Looks very nice though.

Some of our local New England collectors feel the chalcedony veins distinguish Lime Rock jasper, and allow us to recognize it as different than Pa. jasper, but the description of Lime Rock jasper in the article I posted said it contains translucent chalcedony veins “much like Pa. jasper”, so I assume there must be some grades from Pa. for which this would be the case...

 

[MAMucker]

Looks Marbleized. That?d be a good moniker. Marbleized Jasper.

Why are my apostrophes turning into question marks?

 

[ToddsPoint]

Here's a 5" biface of heated jasper I made from material from Buck's Co. PA. It was difficult but possible to work raw but much easier on my old bones after I heated it to 550?F for 8 hrs. I tried to save one biface of each material I chipped. I have quite a collection. I only had a small quantity of this jasper and this is what's left. Gary

 

[ToddsPoint]

Looks Marbleized. That?d be a good moniker. Marbleized Jasper.

Why are my apostrophes turning into question marks?

My degree mark on 550 turned into a question mark too. 550? 550?


I tried editing it and it still won't take.

 

[smokeythecat]

I heated some flint from PA a couple years back. Dug a hole in the yard, put down sand, then the flint, actually it was jasper, put a small bag of charcoal over top lit it and let it burn itself out. Utter failure. I tried knapping a couple pieces of pre heated stuff I got on the net, absolute failure. I don't have the strength in my hands to pressure flake.

 

[MAMucker]

I heated some flint from PA a couple years back. Dug a hole in the yard, put down sand, then the flint, actually it was jasper, put a small bag of charcoal over top lit it and let it burn itself out. Utter failure. I tried knapping a couple pieces of pre heated stuff I got on the net, absolute failure. I don't have the strength in my hands to pressure flake.

Curious if it changed color?

 

[smokeythecat]

No, it didn't because unbeknown to me the American Indians had already cooked it! I was working an Indian site where they did a lot of this.

 

[ToddsPoint]

Curious if it changed color?

For the jasper I posted, it's been so long ago that I heated this stuff I don't really remember what it looked like raw. I'd say yes, there was likely some color change. You never know what color a rock will turn until you cook it. Some do, some don't. Gary

 

[billb]

Smokey. Very nice post and well said..I am learning so much about the origins and different types of these..