THE PLATFORM-a publication of the Minnesota Knappers Guild-
THE PLATFORM
-a publication of the Minnesota Knappers Guild-
Editor: Gene Altiere
712 Medical Arts Building
Duluth, MN 55802
MKG members Jim Regan, Tony Romano, their wives (both named Pat), Gene Altiere and Wanda Benson were participants in the public open house at the Misiano Site at McDougal Lake this summer. MKG member Gordon Peters is the archaeologist for the Superior National Forest and is in charge of the site (see story in this issue). It was particularly interesting this year as there was a dugout canoe construction project going on at the site and the stone tools being used had been constructed by Tony and Jim (see report in last issue). When we were there (late July) the canoe appeared to be about half done. We will have to ask Dr. Peters for a report on the finished product!
Welcome to new members Kevin Plath, Burnsville, MN and Kevin Walters, New Lexington, OH.
What I think (in consultation with Steve and Walt, of course) is that Misiano represents a dug-out canoe building area, dating from about 8-10,000 years ago...Not the early caribou hunting Paleoindian site we were looking for. In fact, it really doesn't contain separate Paleoindian and Archaic complexes, but rather, it occupies the beginning of the transitional period between the cool and wet boreal forest and the warm and dry establishment of the red and white pine forest. This is why we are getting late Paleoindian and Archaic points on the site which are stratigraphically separated (from the excavations, the Paleo is below the Archaic).
From your visit to the site, you may have noticed that the campground still contains numerous red and white pine. A perusal of the adjacent areas show lowland spruce areas with aspen on the north facing slopes of the highland areas. Misiano is a well drained moraine ridge with a south exposure and would be considered a "warm" site. This would have been and is currently optimal for the pine forest. Isn't it great to see how archaeology can contribute to ecosystem reconstruction!!
This is where the large bifaces and trihedral adzes, not to mention the firehearths come into play. I believe that the hearths were used to maintain fires, which were used in turn to burn out the inside of the dug-out. The burnt wood and charcoal was then hued out with the adzes and bifaces. Adzes and bifaces were also used to form the outside hull of the canoe and the infamous rock patterns may have been used to support the log during the hull forming process.
How did Area A differ from Areas B & C? I think that Areas B and C represent a biface and adze manufacturing area, while Area A actually was the canoe building area. Lithics from this Area suggest retouching of woodworking tools whereas Areas B and C suggests (with all of the primary reduction flakes) the actual manufacturing of the tools.
A final thought, and mine alone, was why did we get some small scrapers made out of chert, agate and silica. I'm convinced that these are used for fiber making....For what?...How about fish nets!! It appears logical to me, and I would appreciate your comments and suggestions on this and any other thing I've written here (I have no pride!), that the folks were also making fish nets. Aside from the 1992 ungulate and based on current fishing patterns, I would suggest a spring occupation for the site.
1992 - With your help, Passport in Time is a success and will continue to grow. Through Passport in Time, we will all learn more about our Nation's heritage and will continue to expose the American public to the significant and fragile nature of these important resources. And lastly, we'll all have fun doing it. I can't think of a reason why we can't learn and have fun at the same time!!
I feel the same about the 1993 season. My best to you all and your's for the year to come. I hope to see you back next year. In 1994, we want to see how far this activity extends down the ridge and to find out where these "shipwrights" were living!!
With best wishes,
GORDON PETERS
SUPERIOR NATIONAL FOREST
515 WEST 1st STREET
P.O. BOX 338
DULUTH, MN 55801
P.S. I'd really appreciate hearing your comments...positive and negative are all welcome.
In the last issue of the Platform, I described various types of notching tools. Now it is time to put these tools to work. I suspect that any reader of the Platform is already familiar with pressure flaking. Notching is really just a specialized form of pressure flaking.
Tbe first thing you must do is determine where the notches should be. I commonly will lightly sketch then in with pencil, right on the stone. This gives you a better chance to get them located properly, before you start. To start the process, make a small "U" shaped notch on the edge, by pressing straight down not in. This will create a platform for the next flake, but be sure to abrade it first, to make the platform strong enough to take the pressure without crushing. Deepen the notch by taking flakes from both faces, grinding each platform as you go. Through experimentation you will develop the right feel for this process - if you take too big of a bite or aren't supporting the point well enough, you may break off an ear, or snap the whole point. One of the most common problems is getting the tip of the beveled platform too dull, or rounded off; At that point the tip of the notching tool just slips off the platform, not allowing a good enough bite to remove a flake. At this point you can usually go no further - tbe notch has to be left at what ever depth it is. For this reason, never do one notch from start to finish. work back and forth between notches deepening each one a little at a time.
That way you can make corrections as you go, which makes it a lot easier to maintain balance and symmetry of the notches. Another hint - the difficulty of removing notching flakes increases dramatically with the thickness of the base always try to get the base nice and thin before notching. Deep notches, especially narrow ones, will also require careful attention to the tip of the notcher. Don't let the tip get too rounded off - keep the corner sharp. This may require dressing the tip every few flakes.
The notching technique described above i8 the common method that nearly all knappers use. After almost 10 years of knapping though, I happened across another method of notching which has proven to be very useful. Instead of using the tip of the notcher to remove flakes I learned how to notch using the edge of the tool. With this technique I hold the point more or less vertical in my hand and poke the tip of the flaker through the notch. I then bear straight down on the platform to build up pressure and push forward using a rocking motion (Fig. 1). A small flake should pop off. You then flip the point over and use the new platforms to remove another flake. It takes practice to develop the right combination of downward vs. outward pressure when using this technique, and breakage is as likely to occur as in the conventional style of notching. Having a thin base is also as important as in the other method. What this style of notching does offer, is the ability to make curved notches or expanding notches (Fig. 2). The best tip for this style of notching is one shaped like a screwdriver tip. Force is applied on the edge. It seems to help if you keep the corners sharp and square (Fig. 3)
As in all aspects of flintknapping, I'm a strong advocate of reading books. Get a copy of "The Art of Flintknapping" by D.C. Waldorf and study it for advice on notching. A new arrival on the scene is "Flintknapping", by John Whittaker. I highly recommend this one too. It is available from the University of Texas Press, PO Box 7819, Austin Texas 78713-7819. Videos are fast becoming a nice way to learn also. I just received a new tape, "Caught Knapping", which covers the entire process, from mining the stone to a finished point. This video also shows both types of notching that I just described. Next to sitting along side another knapper, a video is the next best thing. This video is available from "Neolithics", 1530 B Street, Springfield OR 97477.
**Missing sketches from last issue**
by Anthony D. Romano
The Ribbing Taconite Gunflint material is not as glossy as many examples found in the Gunflint Formation area. The St. Louis County (Hibbing) material exhibits a duller, matte-like surface, and in addition to the characteristic "ground pepper" grains there are some finely linear concentrations that may have been formed along healed jointing. In poorer grades of the chert, areas of quartz and taconite are encountered. Because quartz is formed at a higher temperature and pressure than is chalcedony, these occurrences may have been brought about by the diagenesis or "gentle" metamorphic influences of the invasive Duluth gabbros. Gunderson and Swartz (1962) wrote "The Eastern Misabe district ...was directly affected by tbe intrusion of the Duluth gabbro...". They go on to say "...the Biwabik iron formation in the Eastern Misabe District has been substantially metamorphosed...". If a thin flake is displayed correctly in reflected light its surface is seen to be a mosaic of clumped masses of granules many of which are clear and many which are variably filled with black grains. Some specimens appear reticular (cellular or net-like) in thin section where micron-sized black grains appear to have invaded the margins of colorless granules. Rarely, in these specimens remarkably minuscule, round, black inclusions are encountered. Infrequently, some of the clear chalcedonic granules contain small areas of quartz crystals, once again probably associated with metamorphic alteration. This conclusion is supported by Hayatsu, et al. (1983), who state "The fact that very delicate microfossils are preserved in Gunflint chert---indicates---very little metamorphism because the slightest recrystallization would destroy microfossils. The Biwabik Formation of the Mesabi range contains algal structures that are similar to those found in the Gunflint formation (Lougheed and Mancuso, 1975, 1977), but individual microfossils are very poorly preserved in the Biwabik, even in areas where the Biwabik has undergone only low-grade metamorphism.
It seems apparent to this writer the term "Gunflint Silica" was employed to high-light the fact the material was very glossy and chalcedonic in feel and appearance. It therefore seems appropriate for the sake of clarity to refer to this similar St. Louis County material as "Biwabik Silica" to not only distinguish it from Gunflint Silica, but also to emphasize its site of origin, particular characteristics and, at the same time, its close relationship to Gunflint Silica.
Was the stone available to early man for flint knapping? It is once again helpful to review the geology of northeastern Minnesota and Ontario. "Northern Minnesota and Ontario were heavily glaciated during the late Pleistocene, which may have removed the last thin outliers of Cretaceous-Jurassic sediments and deposited in their place glacial material, ranging in thickness from less than 6 m to more than 90 m. The only places where the Biwabik and Gunflint Iron Formations form extensive outcrops through this glacial cover are at the eastern end of the Mesabi range and on the Gunflint range. The Gunflint Formation is semi-continuously exposed from the Gunflint Lake on the international boundary to Thunder Bay on Lake Superior, a distance of approximately 175 km. Isolated exposures of the Gunflint occur eastward from Thunder Bay, along the north shore of Lake Superior to the Slate Islands near Schreiber and beyond, indicating that the Gunflint Formation extends at least an additional 110 km east of Thunder Bay." (Hayatsu, et al. 1983).
Apparently Biwabik Silica was not available to indigenous tool makers at the Hibbing Tac mine site because of the depth of its occurrence. However, Gruner, 1946, reports that early geologists who, following raging forest fires creating better visibility, made surveys in the area and recorded several outcroppings of the Lower Cherty Member. One of these was at the "Virginia Horn" which is a horn-like projection of the Mesabi Range pointing in a northeastern direction near Virginia Minnesota. These outcroppings most certainly could have made the Biwabik Silica available. Hibbing Taconite Company geologist, Henry Djerlev, who graciously reviewed this paper, wrote that he would suggest that the Biwabik Silica may have been found in the glacial float (glacially distributed material) on, or near, the Mesabi...probably to the south.
Did early man utilize Biwabik Silica for tool making? In June of 1993. a very knowledgeable amateur archaeologist shared with me some worked stone objects found in a plowed field along the Snake River in east central Minnesota. In that group of objects was a projectile point about two inches long, broadly side-notched with a convex base, which we both, along with several respected professional archaeologists, agreed was fashioned from the above mentioned Biwabik Silica. The artifact closely resembles a Durst stemmed type point. Two St. Crois points, described by Christy Caine in her thesis concerning the archaeology of the Snake River, Pine County, Minnesota, are fashioned of very similar lithic material. Once again I hasten to point out Gunflint Silica is far more prevalently encountered in that area but these projectile points are available for examination. Additionally, it is strongly suspected that with further investigation of the afore mentioned flakes from the bison kill site at Grand Meadow, Minnesota, will establish their likeness to Biwabik Silica rather than Gunflint Silica.
We don't know all there is to know about Gunflint Silica yet, but we sure know a lot more than when we started.