Andy White Anthropology
  • Home
  • Research Interests
    • Complexity Science
    • Prehistoric Social Networks
    • Eastern Woodlands Prehistory
    • Ancient Giants
  • Blog
  • Work in Progress
    • The Kirk Project >
      • Kirk 3D Models list
      • Kirk 3D Models embedded
      • Kirk 2D images >
        • Indiana
        • Kentucky
        • Michigan
        • Ontario
      • Kirk Project Datasets
    • Computational Modeling >
      • FN3D_V3
    • Radiocarbon Compilation
    • Fake Hercules Swords
    • Wild Carolina >
      • Plants >
        • Mosses
        • Ferns
        • Conifers
        • Flowering Plants >
          • Grasses
          • Trees
          • Other Flowering Plants
      • Animals >
        • Birds
        • Mammals
        • Crustaceans
        • Insects
        • Arachnids
        • Millipedes and Centipedes
        • Reptiles and Amphibians
      • Fungi
  • Annotated Publications
    • Journal Articles
    • Technical Reports
    • Doctoral Dissertation
  • Bibliography
  • Data

The Kirk Project: The Nipper Creek Cache

2/5/2016

14 Comments

 
Don't worry -- I'm not planning on writing about every Kirk point I look at. I've gained some new readers with the whole "Roman sword" debacle, and I hope to not lose all of them as I transition back into writing more about real archaeology and anthropology. Neither the real science nor the stupid ever stops, but I'll try to mix it up somewhat.
I wanted to write a quick post about a small (n = 6) assemblage of Kirk points from the Nipper Creek site (38-RD-18) in Richland County, South Carolina.  The six points were part of a cache that was exposed during a 1986 archaeological field school directed by Albert Goodyear and Ruth Wetmore. (For those unfamiliar with the archaeological use of the term, a "cache" is a group of objects that were hidden or stored for future use.)  The six points were found within a small horizontal area (about 264 square cm, a little over a quarter of a square foot) and within about 5-10 cm vertically.  It is likely that the points were originally placed in a pit (no outline of a pit was discerned) or on a common surface.

Goodyear et al. described the Nipper Creek cache in a short 2004 paper in Current Research in the Pleistocene (see reference below).  I took the opportunity to take a quick color photo of the points as I was scanning them so I could have a visual record cross-referencing the alphabetic designations used in the Goodyear et al. paper with the numeric designations on the bags and the unique ID numbers assigned to the points in my database. 
Picture
Kirk points in the Nipper Creek cache. All except E were made from metavolcanic stone from North Carolina. Point E was made from Ridge and Valley chert, probably obtained in eastern Tennessee.
One really useful thing about an assemblage like the Nipper Creek cache is that it gives us a "snapshot" view of tools from a narrow window of time. Because these six tools all entered the archaeological record together, transferred from a "dynamic" human behavioral context to a "static" archaeological context in a single act, they can potentially tell us something about synchronic variability in Kirk Points that "broad time" surface assemblages cannot. At least some of the variability in Kirk has to be related to change through time -- how do we pin that down? With the aid of stratified deposits and discrete features that provide context.  "Narrow time" deposits like the Nipper Creek cache are potentially of great utility in interpreting the variability that will be present in a "broad time" assemblage of Kirks from across the Eastern Woodlands.

Goodyear, Albert C., William Radisch, Ruth Wetmore, and V. Ann Tippitt.  2004.  A Kirk Corner-Notched Point Cache from the Nipper Creek Site (38RD18), South Carolina.  Current Research in the Pleistocene 21:42-44.

Update (2/11/2016): 3D model of Biface 3 (5965) completed.
​Update (2/12/2016): 3D model of Biface 2 (5966) completed.
Update (2/15/2016): 3D model of Biface 5 (5964) completed.
Update (2/16/2016): 3D model of Biface 4 (5963) completed.
​Update (2/18/2016): 3D model of Biface 1 (5967) completed.
Update (2/19/2016): 3D model of Biface 6 (5968) completed.
14 Comments
Bob Jase
2/5/2016 09:23:23 am

For all the time I was growing up I had heard about how easy it was to find native American artifacts while hiking. According to the buzz, Will Warren's Den and the surrounding area were piled high with old arrowheads & such. After decades of tromping around the woods I have exactly zero. I did find one large stone grinding mill back in the '70's but it was too heavy to haul home.

Reply
Uncle Ron
2/5/2016 06:30:56 pm

Forty years ago there were fields around Washington Boro, Pa. where, after the first rain following the spring plowing, you couldn't walk without stepping on an arrow point or Native American pottery shard. Now they are all residential developments.

Reply
Eric
2/5/2016 09:49:55 am

So these points are a ritually buried, votive assemblage?

Reply
Andy White
2/5/2016 09:58:24 am

Ritual deposition of lithics is not unheard of among Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene hunter-gatherers in the east (see this link about Crowfield, for example: http://anthropology.uwo.ca/cje/crowfield.htm) but Nipper Creek is probably functional. Here's a paper that discusses some of the reasons why mobile hunter-gatherers might cache tools:

https://www.academia.edu/5240687/AN_ANALYSIS_OF_VARIATION_IN_CACHING_BEHAVIOR_Author_s_Stance_Hurst_Source_Lithic

Reply
Eric
2/5/2016 11:09:02 am

Yes, you said the Kirk points were part of a larger cache, so I'm assuming the rest of the finds support a functional context. Are you weighing the points as well, and extrapolating the probable original dimensions and weight of the points? Ballistically, the weight of various points is as important as shape in determining performance and hence function and use. Weight is going to affect accuracy and velocity and the killing range of the projectile.

Reply
Andy White
2/5/2016 11:16:16 am

Projectile weight is an important aspect of functional variability, but you have to keep in mind that the stone point itself accounts for a pretty low percentage of the total weight of the projectile. If you want to wade into my dissertation there's a brief discussion of projectile ballistics there (starting on page 218):

https://www.academia.edu/1930795/The_Social_Networks_of_Early_Hunter-Gatherers_in_Midcontinental_North_America_2012_

Reply
Eric
2/5/2016 12:22:59 pm

I'm a former artilleryman, that was right in my zone! Ballistics is the same whether it's hand thrown darts or 155mm howitzers.

Andy White
2/5/2016 12:24:49 pm

Yeah, I would sum up the size equation as "no bigger than needed to do the job."

Eric
2/5/2016 03:53:04 pm

So your total projectile weight can be modified by the shaft material and length for different targets (deer, birds, or even people) and terrain, ie a heavier dart for woodland, where ambush opportunities allow for short range targets. Versatility and lethality has to be a step up to offset the extra effort in creating the point as opposed to the older, less complex points, right? Is Kirk a response to the forestation in the East?-its a Woodland point, so it must have an advantage in deciduous forests over points intended for open steppe or taiga forest.

Andy White
2/6/2016 04:02:53 am

Like almost everything in archaeology, it isn't that simple. But, yes, the stone point itself is part of a compound weapon system that is "designed" to do a set of tasks. The functional considerations imposed by game/environment surely exert some influence on size (e.g., if you're hunting an animal like a deer you don't want a super heavy projectile that makes you throw a Hail Mary to reach the target; for an elephant, however, you may need the extra oomph of a heavy projectile to penetrate the hide, etc.).

But that's not the whole story. Stone tools, like any tools, have "style" incorporated into their design. "Style" can be defined as parts of the design that don't have much affect on function. It doesn't matter what color the hammer is, for example, it still works the same.

To further complicate things, formal stone tools like projectile points were often multi-functional. In the case of Kirk and other Early Archaic technologies, the points were often used as saws, knives, scrapers, etc., in addition to serving as the tips of projectile weapons.

All of this makes it difficult to figure out what variability means. But before you do that, you have to have a sample large enough to understand the structure of variability in the first place. Hence the Kirk Project.

James MacNaughton
2/6/2016 05:50:19 pm

And I'm sure Andy covered this somewhere in here, but some regions the point itself was the time/materiel investment, it was the shafts of the projectiles.

Awesome stuff, Andy. I'm now a follower!

James MacNaughton
2/6/2016 05:51:31 pm

*the point WASN'T the valuable resource.

Sorry, rented fingers.

J m hume
2/5/2016 05:04:12 pm

A very interesting subject and great comments with it. I feel like im in the first row of the classroom and i enjoy it. Great stuff!

Reply
Bill Wagner
2/11/2016 03:11:10 pm

That Early Archaic points such as Kirk were projectile points is not axiomatic. Their re-sharpening strategies suggest they were hafted knives. And very few of them (in my limited experience) show impact fractures. FWIW (assuming anything).

Reply



Leave a Reply.


    All views expressed in my blog posts are my own. The views of those that comment are their own. That's how it works.

    I reserve the right to take down comments that I deem to be defamatory or harassing. 

    Andy White

    Follow me on Twitter: @Andrew_A_White

    Email me: andy.white.zpm@gmail.com

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner


    Picture

    Sick of the woo?  Want to help keep honest and open dialogue about pseudo-archaeology on the internet? Please consider contributing to Woo War Two.
    Picture

    Follow updates on posts related to giants on the Modern Mythology of Giants page on Facebook.

    Archives

    January 2023
    January 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    March 2021
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    Categories

    All
    3D Models
    AAA
    Adena
    Afrocentrism
    Agent Based Modeling
    Agent-based Modeling
    Aircraft
    Alabama
    Aliens
    Ancient Artifact Preservation Society
    Androgynous Fish Gods
    ANTH 227
    ANTH 291
    ANTH 322
    Anthropology History
    Anunnaki
    Appalachia
    Archaeology
    Ardipithecus
    Art
    Atlantis
    Australia
    Australopithecines
    Aviation History
    Bigfoot
    Birds
    Boas
    Book Of Mormon
    Broad River Archaeological Field School
    Bronze Age
    Caribou
    Carolina Bays
    Ceramics
    China
    Clovis
    Complexity
    Copper Culture
    Cotton Mather
    COVID-19
    Creationism
    Croatia
    Crow
    Demography
    Denisovans
    Diffusionism
    DINAA
    Dinosaurs
    Dirt Dance Floor
    Double Rows Of Teeth
    Dragonflies
    Early Archaic
    Early Woodland
    Earthworks
    Eastern Woodlands
    Eastern Woodlands Household Archaeology Data Project
    Education
    Egypt
    Europe
    Evolution
    Ewhadp
    Fake Hercules Swords
    Fetal Head Molding
    Field School
    Film
    Florida
    Forbidden Archaeology
    Forbidden History
    Four Field Anthropology
    Four-field Anthropology
    France
    Genetics
    Genus Homo
    Geology
    Geometry
    Geophysics
    Georgia
    Giants
    Giants Of Olden Times
    Gigantism
    Gigantopithecus
    Graham Hancock
    Grand Valley State
    Great Lakes
    Hollow Earth
    Homo Erectus
    Hunter Gatherers
    Hunter-gatherers
    Illinois
    India
    Indiana
    Indonesia
    Iowa
    Iraq
    Israel
    Jim Vieira
    Jobs
    Kensington Rune Stone
    Kentucky
    Kirk Project
    Late Archaic
    Lemuria
    Lithic Raw Materials
    Lithics
    Lizard Man
    Lomekwi
    Lost Continents
    Mack
    Mammoths
    Mastodons
    Maya
    Megafauna
    Megaliths
    Mesolithic
    Michigan
    Middle Archaic
    Middle Pleistocene
    Middle Woodland
    Midwest
    Minnesota
    Mississippi
    Mississippian
    Missouri
    Modeling
    Morphometric
    Mound Builder Myth
    Mu
    Music
    Nazis
    Neandertals
    Near East
    Nephilim
    Nevada
    New Mexico
    Newspapers
    New York
    North Carolina
    Oahspe
    Oak Island
    Obstetrics
    Ohio
    Ohio Valley
    Oldowan
    Olmec
    Open Data
    Paleoindian
    Paleolithic
    Pilumgate
    Pleistocene
    Pliocene
    Pre Clovis
    Pre-Clovis
    Prehistoric Families
    Pseudo Science
    Pseudo-science
    Radiocarbon
    Reality Check
    Rome
    Russia
    SAA
    Sardinia
    SCIAA
    Science
    Scientific Racism
    Sculpture
    SEAC
    Search For The Lost Giants
    Sexual Dimorphism
    Sitchin
    Social Complexity
    Social Networks
    Solutrean Hypothesis
    South Africa
    South America
    South Carolina
    Southeast
    Stone Holes
    Subsistence
    Swordgate
    Teaching
    Technology
    Teeth
    Television
    Tennessee
    Texas
    Topper
    Travel
    Travel Diaries
    Vaccines
    Washington
    Whatzit
    White Supremacists
    Wisconsin
    Woo War Two
    World War I
    World War II
    Writing
    Younger Dryas

    RSS Feed

    Picture
Proudly powered by Weebly