Kanawha Stemmed
Defining Attributes
The Kanawha Stemmed point has a small triangular blade and a bifurcated base.
Chronology
The Kanawha Stemmed point dates to the Early Archaic period, although some archaeologists, following Gardner (1989), see the introduction of bifurcate base points as the beginning of the Middle Archaic. Broyles (1971) obtained a radiocarbon date of 6210 ± 100 BC (approximately 7100 BC in calendar years) for the Kanawha at the St. Albans site in West Virginia. Chapman (1976) suggests a date range of 8200 to 7800 BP (roughly 7200-6650 BC) based on its stratigraphic position between LeCroy and Stanly points at sites in Tennessee. Steponaitis (1980) suggests a range of 8300 to 8000 BP (7350 BC-6900 BC). Some bifurcate base points have been found in contexts dating between 7000 and 8000 BP in the Northeast, with the youngest radiocarbon dated to 5185 ± 200 BC (approximately 6025 BC calendar). This may suggest that some bifurcates, as well as other Early Archaic points like the Kirk, continued in use in the North long after disappearing from the Southeast (Funk 1993; Kent 1996).
Description
Blade
The blade is triangular and usually narrow. Edges are straight, incurvate, or recurved, and are usually serrated. Re-sharpening is common, often resulting in flared shoulders and blade asymmetry.
Haft Element
The base is generally, but not always, bifurcated and thinned, with no evidence of grinding. The basal notches tend to be shallower than on most other bifurcate types. Flat or slightly concave bases do sometimes occur. The stem is expanded and has rounded corners, and is up to one half the width of the blade. Shoulders are wide and straight; most are at right angles to the stem, but some slope up toward the tip.
Size
Length ranges from 19 to 48 mm, with most between 30 and 36 mm. Width ranges from 19 to 37 mm, with most between 23 and 27 mm. Thickness ranges from 3 to 7 mm.
Technique of Manufacture
Made by percussion and pressure flaking.
Material
In a sample of 16 Kanawha points from the lower Patuxent drainage, Steponaitis (1980) reported that 31% were quartz and 31% rhyolite, followed by chert and quartzite at 19% each. In the area surrounding Zekiah Swamp on the lower Potomac, Wanser (1982) found that 51% of 37 Kanawha points were rhyolite, with 38% quartz, 8% chert, and 3% quartzite. Of the 9 Kanawha points found at the Indian Creek V site in Prince Georges County, 6 were rhyolite and 3 quartz (LeeDecker and Koldehoff 1991). In the Monocacy River drainage, 70% of 20 Kanawhas were rhyolite, while the rest were quartz (Kavanagh 1982). Chert Kanawha points predominate in the middle Potomac River Valley, but rhyolite and quartzite are also used (Hranicky 2002). In Delaware, bifurcate base points are commonly made from chert, jasper, and rhyolite (Custer 1996).
Discussion
The Kanawha Stemmed point is the youngest of the bifurcate base types. It is found across the eastern United States from New York to Georgia and west to Illinois, although in many areas it seems to be less abundant than the earlier LeCroy type. Joffre Coe felt the Kanawha might be ancestral to the Stanly point, and the close morphological correlation between the two types has been noted (Broyles 1971; Justice 1987). The primary difference between the two types is that the Stanly is generally younger and larger than the Kanawha, with a basal notch that is often less pronounced.
Defined in Literature
The Kanawha point was originally described by Broyles (1966; 1971) using examples recovered from the St. Albans site in West Virginia.
References
1966 Preliminary Report: The St. Albans Site (46Ka27), Kanawha County, West Virginia. West Virginia Archeologist 19:1-43.
1971 The St. Albans Site, Kanawha County, West Virginia. West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey, Report of Archeological Investigations 3, Morgantown, WV.
1976 The Archaic Period in the Lower Little Tennessee River Valley: the Radiocarbon Dates. Tennessee Anthropologist 1(1):1-12.
1996 A Guide to Prehistoric Arrowheads and Spear Points of Delaware. Center for Archaeological Research, University of Delaware, Newark.
1993 Archaeological Investigations in the Upper Susquehanna Valley, New York State: Volume 1. Persimmon Press, Buffalo.
1989 An Examination of Cultural Change in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene (circa 9200 to 6800 B.C.). In Paleoindian Research in Virginia: A Synthesis, edited by J. Mark Wittkofski and Theodore R. Reinhart, pp. 5–51. Special Publication 19. Archeological Society of Virginia, Richmond.
2002 Lithic Technology in the Middle Potomac River Valley of Maryland and Virginia. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
1987 Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of the Midcontinental and Eastern United States: A Modern Survey and Reference. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
1982 Archeological Resources of the Monocacy River Region, Frederick and Carroll Counties, Maryland: Final Report. Maryland Geological Survey, Division of Archeology, File Report 164.
1996 Piney Island and the Archaic of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 66(2):1-42.
1991 Excavation of the Indian Creek V Site (18PR94), Prince George’s County, Maryland. Report prepared for Wallace Roberts & Todd and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority by Louis Berger and Associates, Inc.
1980 A Survey of Artifact Collections from the Patuxent River Drainage, Maryland. Maryland Historical Trust Monograph Series 1. Maryland Historical Trust and Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Annapolis, MD.
1982 A Survey of Artifact Collections from Central Southern Maryland. Maryland Historical Trust Manuscript Series 23. Maryland Historical Trust and Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Annapolis.