Tag: Paleoindian artifacts

By William Eilers, Union, Missouri

October 2013 Central Syates Archaeological Journal

In early May 2005, I was working along the Pereque Creek on a jobsite in the town of O’Fallon, Missouri. Points and artifacts began emerging as the site was being cleared, so once the grading started, I really began looking! While walking along the freshly overturned ground, my eyes caught the unmistakable shape of an artifact sticking out of the dirt! When I pulled it out, I could not believe it! It was a perfect undamaged point, thin and beautiful. I stood there wiping away the dirt with my shirt and was literally shaking the entire time. Little did I know what was to come in the next few minutes? I looked down and saw another point lying in the dirt, just like the one I just found, and in picking it up I spotted yet another point sticking out of a large chunk of dirt. I broke the large dirt chunk open and staring me in the face were three more points; again the same as the others. When all was said and done, there were a total of fourteen artifacts; four blanks and ten completed points.

I took the day’s findings home. As I started cleaning them, revealing their design, I wondered what type they were. I showed some fellow collectors and they were all amazed at the quality of the chert and workmanship, but nobody could give me a 100% positive answer as to the type. Some thought they were Dalton, others said they were possibly Plainview. Still others said Godar pre-forms, or even suggested they were possibly a new point type. There were other artifacts found on the site, but unfortunately, they were of no help in determining the point type. Some of the other items found included some broken Plainview and Dalton points, a nice complete Thebes; Rice; Etley; along with some Woodland tools. This made narrowing down the time frame of the site very difficult to say the least! It was obviously a popular campsite for a very long period of time.

The measurements of the points range from 2 9/16 inches to 4 inches long. They all measured almost the same in width, with just an 1/8 of an inch separating them. They had an average thickness of just over ¼ inch. The blanks were exact matches of the finished points, just not polished, so obviously they were pre-forms for this point style.

Later that year, I showed them to Pete Bostrom, who is well known in the collector/archaeological community. He has a web site known as the Lithic Casting Lab (www.lithiccatinglab.com), which features pictures, artifact casts and articles. He photographed them and showed them to archaeologists at the University of Illinois. They classified these possibly as un-notched Godar points. Pete also stated that these could be a new un-named point type. He wrote an article on them for his website (article #203, 8-31-2005) and photographed them. Pete stated his article:

“Ten of the points are finished except for side-notches. But, the lack of side-notches on so many Godar points from different sites may be an indication that the Godar knapper never intended to put notches on these points. If that is true, they may represent a finished ‘unnotched’ projectile point. For example, unnotched Snyders points are North points and unnotched Cahokia points are Madison points. The finished points in this cache are very well made. The Archaic flintknapper applied fine pressure flaking along the edges. The exception is the four early stage preforms… Half of the points and all four preforms are made of local Burlington chert and five of the points are made of Salem chert. They range in size from 3 3/4 (9.5 cm) to 4 (10.1 cm) inches long.”

Pete ends his discussion with:

“Unnotched Godar points might be compared to unnotched Snyders points that were named North points by Gregory Perino. North points have also been found in caches, either with burials or in house floors. A couple of other unnotched forms are notched Etleys which are called Wadlow or unnotched Cahokia points that are called Madison points. The author was informed of another cache of both notched and unnotched Godar points that were found many years ago on an Illinois lake shore. The points in the Eilers cache are very well made and seem to reflect finished points. Since there are so many examples of unnotched Godar points turning up on different sites it might be desirable to give them a name. A suggestion might be Eilers points after the finder of this cache.”

Even after this article was written, the debate on identifying these points was not over. Some people still stuck to their opinions of Dalton or Plainview. I had no idea anymore! I put the points in a frame and hung them on the wall in my basement with my other artifacts, and pretty much gave up on identifying them.

Now fast forward to May of 2011, almost eight years later. I’ve had these in a nice wooden frame displayed with my other points collected over the years in my house. People who looked at my collection were immediately drawn to this frame of 14 points. Even non-collectors could tell that these points were special.

A friend of mine was going to show some of his points to a well-known collector in the area (Jim). He said if I was coming along that I should bring some points from my collection, so I grabbed the frame with this cache. When I showed them to Jim, he was speechless! I asked him what type he thought they were, and without hesitation, he said there is no doubt in his mind that these were Plainview points. He advised me to get them papered, and told me Roy Motley was the person I should send them to.

I sent the cache to Roy the following week. I then got a phone call from Roy a few days later. He told me he was very surprised and not prepared for what I had sent! First, he told me that Plainview points in general are not common to find, and a cache of Plainview points is very rare. He said he has never seen Plainview points like this, and that I probably didn’t realize what I had.

This news, of course, caught me by surprise and we continued to talk for a couple of hours about this cache. He said these points show remarkable workmanship with a variety of cherts, outstanding micro edgework, and overall expert flaking. His opinion was these were made from Harvester, Crescent Quarry, and Burlington cherts.

According to Roy, these are not your typical “textbook” Plainview examples, but rather these artifacts have characteristic flaking styles from both the Plainview culture and possibly the Dalton culture. Hence, these may be important because of the fact they show flaking from two different cultures. Perhaps these two cultures that were thought to have been separate, were actually together at some period in time?

With the exception of the four larger blanks, these lanceolate points or knives are finished with micro edgework and have no signs of notching. They appear from pictures to be heat treated, but they do not have the characteristic glossy look that heat-treated cherts display. The native Harvester cherts, near where these were found, have natural color because of the various amounts of iron causing the red colors.

Now, I’m not an expert on this subject, and I don’t claim to be even close. All I am trying to do is shed some light on this cache and possibly spark some interest. If indeed, these points are potentially important in some way, I want others to research them and I am willing to help out in any way I can.

In an effort to do this, I placed this cache on some internet forums, and I’ve received a wide variety of opinions and responses. A lot of people are certain these are not Plainview, others think they are, while some have no opinion as to point type or age. Others can see Plainview and Dalton in the flaking patterns of the points. Some see Godar flaking. Some see heat treating, others do not. There have been heated arguments with accusations thrown around, and simple low-key discussions, all of which I hope will eventually solve the mystery.

In the meantime, I will reminisce over this find of a lifetime. I look at these every day with the same pride and awe as the day I found them. I will never forget that cool May day as my discovery sent me scrambling to mark the area to keep the earth moving equipment away so I could search thoroughly. I can still remember the pounding of my heart, the trembling of my hands, and the hyper-ventilating in my breath as I pulled these treasures from the earth! These are the things nobody can argue, change or take away.

Whether these turn out to be important or not, they will still be the centerpiece of my collection. While these may very well be a once in a lifetime find, I will never stop hunting!