ROSE KING Muskogee, Oklahoma
Volume 28, Number 3, July 1981 Central States Archaeological Journal
Grooved axes are reported in the whole Mississippi Valley, Southeast and South-Central Canada, and the Southwest. Since they were primarily a wood working tool, they are predominantly found where trees are more abundant. They were evidently an item for trading from one area to another; perhaps this accounts for the variety we find along the Arkansas and Canadian Rivers.
The materials used seem to be selected for hardness and durability. Most are made of granite, a basaltic fine-grained material; hematite; gneiss, a very hard quartzitic sandstone; and/or a greenish hard material looking like limestone. They can be resharpened when a new cutting edge is needed.
The typical method of manufacture seems to have been to peck the axe to shape, then to grind and polish all or part of it. Some are very highly polished. After pecking to shape, the Indian used a sandstone slab with water to grind or polish the axe. Gregory Perino illustrates the manufacture of the axe in the Shell Oil Film, The Early Americans, filmed at the Koster Site in Kampsville, Illinois.
Both full-grooved and three-quarter grooved axes are found in northeastern Oklahoma. Rare anywhere, but particularly here, are the double-grooved axe and the half-grooved axe.
The double-grooved axe (Figure 1-2) was found in Muskogee County in a plowed field. It is made of a greenish-gray fine-grained granite, pecked to shape and ground smooth. The two grooves are above the center of the axe, 4 ¾ inches wide and 3/16 inch deep. The axe is 5 ¼ inches long, 3 ¼ inches wide, and 1 ¼ inches thick. It weighs 1 ½ pounds. The blade tapers gradually to the bit. The poll shows slight damage by use, battering, or possibly both.
The half-grooved axe (Figure 1-1) is ovate and is pecked and ground smooth. It is made of a dark gray, fine-grained quartzite material. The grooves are only on the flat surface of the axe. Each groove is 3 ¼ inches wide and 5/16 inch deep. It is 3 7/8 inches long, 2 5/8 inches wide, and 1 ½ inches thick. It weighs 1 1/8 pounds. Half-grooved axes are usually the Keokuk variety; however, this axe is not listed as Keokuk axes. This axe was found in a usual manner in a plowed field in Muskogee County, Oklahoma. This site has been plundered by many relic hunters and has been unusual in that it has yielded a grooved maul, a full-grooved axe, a celt, a plummet-pendant (flattened pendant?), Dalton points and the usual mixture of dart points including Garies and Maude arrow points. Quite a variety in time span!
The full-grooved axe of Figure 1-3 has a wide groove which takes a third of the total length of the axe. It is made of a polished fine-grained, greenish-gray granite, and is unblemished by the plow. Found in Muskogee County, it is 6 ½ inches long, 2 ½ inches wide and 1 3/8 inches thick and weighs 1 3/8 pounds.
The axe in Figure 1-4 is made of fine-grained gray material. The poll is rounded and the blade is thin. The protruding flanges on either side of the groove is the unusual feature for Oklahoma axes. The poll is 1 ½ inches tall, the flanges extend 7/16 of an inch above the groove, and the poll is approximately 1 ½ inches wide. The axe is 5 ⅞ inches long and 3 7/16 inches wide at the flanges. It weighs 1 ¾ pounds and has a sharp blade with moderate use-battering. It was also found in Muskogee County.
Figure 1-5 is a deeply grooved axe with high flanges on either side of the groove. It is of dark fine-grained igneous rock, pecked and ground, with the bit end polished slick. It weighs 3 pounds and is 7 ⅝ inches long, 3 ⅝ inches wide, and 1 7/8 inches thick, with a ½-inch deep groove. The poll is rounded and smooth; the sides of the bit are rounded and sharp. Axes 4 and 5 were found in close proximity of each other, so perhaps could be in the same cultural association.
Another flanged axe, Figure 1-6, has a knobbed projection on the poll. The groove is wider and shallower than either number 4 or 5. It is made of a very fine-grained igneous material, gray where it is not so highly polished. The bit end is very highly polished (from use?). It weighs 2 ⅞ pounds, and is 6 ¾ inches long and 3 ½ inches wide. The groove is 1 ½ inches wide and ½ inch deep. It came from an Adair County plowed field.
The axe in Figure 1-7 is made of a most unusual material which looks like marble. The other unusual feature is the two parallel lines cut into the blade on each surface. It is a small, short full-grooved axe. It either took a lot of pounding on the poll or was purposely left unfinished there. It is 3 ¾ inches long and 2 ¼ inches wide and weighs ¾ of a pound. The groove is 1 inch wide by ⅛ inch deep. It was found in a Muskogee County plowed field. The axe closely resembles pictures of axes in the Southwest made of fibrilite material.
The red oolitic hematite and the squat broad shape of axe Number 8 are the unusual features. The poll shows much abuse. It was found in a soybean row in Muskogee County. Some of the most elite artifacts we have came from the same vicinity in the field as this axe. It weighs 2 ⅞ pounds and is 5 inches long, 4 ¼ inches wide and 1 ¾ inches thick. The groove is 1 inch wide and ⅜ inch deep.
Figure 1-9 is made of a very hard sandstone. It is a full-grooved axe showing ground finish over all except for the shallow, narrow groove. The shape is very different from the full-grooved axes that we normally see. It weighs 5 pounds and is 8 ½ inches long, 4 ¼ inches wide, and 2 ¼ inches thick. The rounded poll extends 2 1/2 inches above the groove. It was found in a freshly plowed field in Adair County.
The tannish-gray, fine-grained axe in Figure 1-10 is well polished. The top of the poll is flattened and extends 1 1/4 inches above the groove. The weight is 3 1/2 pounds; length, 8 1/2 inches; width, 3 3/4 inches; thickness, 2 1/8 inches. It is from a plowed field in Adair County.
Figure 11 is an odd one! It is flattened on one side like an adz, and the other side is rounded and tapering toward the bit. Made of a fine-grained granitic material, it weighs 2 5/8 pounds. The length is 6 1/4 inches; width, 3 1/2 inches; depth, 2 inches tapering to 1 1/8 inches. It was found in Adair County in a plowed field in what is probably a continuation of a very large site.
Figure 1-12 was found in a field that is probably a continuation of the field where number 11 was found. The unusual features of this beautiful well-polished axe are the string groove that extends from the bit around the poll and down the opposite blade side to the bit and the polished broken place in the bit. It is a thin axe, a very fine-grained granitic material. Its length is 5 5/8 inches; width, 2 5/8 inches; thickness 3/4 inch. It weighs 1 1/4 pounds. Moorehead pictures a similar axe in Prehistoric Implements, page 132. Ours is 3/4 grooved.
Figure 1-13 came from LeFlore County in an associated Spiro Village site. Its unusual feature is the fine notches in the bit of the blade. Are they tally marks, or could the axe have been modified for use as a flesher? It is 4 1/2 inches long, 2 1/2 inches wide, and 1 1/8 inches thick and weighs 1 3/8 pounds. The material is a black fine-grained igneous rock. We saw some axes in Ben Thompson’s collection that were notched on the side of the blade with incised lines. Whatever the purpose, they are distinctively different.
Figure 1-14 is a grey-green granitic material, 3/4 grooved, with the bit end polished. Its unusual feature is the flared bit. Found in Adair County in a plowed field, it has a rounded poll that increases in size toward the bit. It weighs 1 3/4 pounds and is 5 1/2 inches long, 3 inches wide at the widest section at the bit end, and 1 1/4 inches in depth.
Figure 1-15 is a fine-grained granitic 3/4 grooved axe. It is tan-gray. The unusual feature of this axe is the wide longitudinal groove or depression, triangular in shape, on both the side of the poll and the side of the blade. It is from LeFlore County. It weighs 3 1/2 pounds and is 7 1/8 inches long, 2 3/4 inches wide, and 2 1/2 inches thick. The poll extends 2 1/4 inches above the groove, is flat on one side, and angles from the groove toward the top on the other three sides. The entire axe is ground smooth.
The boxy appearance in Figure 1-16 is unique for our area. It is greenish granite, with fine flanges on the side of the grooved axe. It is 8 3/8 inches long, 3 5/8 inches wide, and 3 1/4 inches thick and weighs 3 3/4 pounds. It was found in Muskogee County.
Also found in Muskogee County, Figure 1-17 is a highly polished, black, fine-grained igneous axe. The narrowed top of the poll is unusual. This long-bladed axe weighs 4 1/4 pounds and is 8 inches long, 4 inches wide, and 2 1/4 inches thick. The blade is 5 1/4 inches long.
The gray granite, well-ground and polished axe in Figure 1-18 is from Tenkiller Lake in Cherokee County. Weighing 6 pounds, it is one of the heavier axes in our collection. It is 7 inches long, 4 1/4 inches wide, and 2 1/8 inches thick.
The smallest axe in our collection is well-polished, greenish, fine-grained igneous rock. Could it be a toy? It is 3 inches long, 1 3/4 inches wide and 1 1/4 inch thick and is three-quarter grooved. It was found in LeFlore County on a Caddoan site.
Two axes in our collection not pictured are made of gneiss, which is very unusual for Oklahoma. They are full grooved, almost identically made, and are from the same site in Adair County. They are 4 1/2 inches long and 3 inches wide. They are the typical full-grooved axe so often found here.
The purpose of each individual variety or form of grooved axe is open to speculation. Certain types seem to be more prevalent in some areas than in others, and some seem to overlap into nearby areas. Some axes are so different in appearance that they would seem to have been made on a whim of the maker.
Materials from which these axes were made vary so greatly that it would seem that the material could have been transported great distances. However, the most common material is the hard sandstone and granite.
Numerous varieties have received special attention and been given definite names in other states, such as the Trophy axe, Wisconsin Fluted, Noded, Michigan Barbed, Notched, Pocket, Double-bitted and the Vertical-Longitudinal grooved axe. None of these are reported for Oklahoma, although they may turn up in the future. In Eastern Oklahoma, the small full-grooved axe predominates.
REFERENCES
Hummell, Glenn R.
The Keokuk Axe, Central States Archaeological Journal, Vol. 24, #1, October, pages 180-181.
McPherson, Harry R.
1971 An Axe of a Very Distinctive Type, Central States Archaeological Journal, Jan. Vol. 18, #1, pages 85-89.
Moorehead, Warren K.
1900 Prehistoric Implements, American Indian Books, Union City, GA, page 132.
Perino, Gregory
1964 The Caddo Axes of Arkansas, Central States Archaeological Journal, Jan., Vol. 14, #1, pages 78-81.
Hummell, Glenn R.
1971 Grooved Axe Typology, Wisconsin Archaeologist, Mar.-Vol. 52, #1, (N.S.), pages 20-41.
Stephens, Roy
1969 Half-grooved Axes, Central States Archaeological Journal, Vol. 16, #3, July, pages 112-116.
