MacCorkle
Defining Attributes
MacCorkle points have a serrated blade with a bifurcate base and a lobed stem.
Chronology
The MacCorkle 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. Justice (1987) suggests a date range of 9000 to 8500 BP (approximately 8250-7575 BC in calendar years), while Broyles (1971) places it between 8850 and 8750 BP (8000-7750 BC), based on the stratigraphic position of examples recovered at the St. Albans site in West Virginia. However, Bergman et al. (1998) note that a few dates clustering around 9300-9400 B.P (the earliest being 9420 ± 90, or approximately 8750 BC calendar) have been associated with bifurcate base points in Pennsylvania and New York.
Description
Blade
The blade is triangular, and has straight or slightly excurvate edges. Serrations may be shallow or deep. Point edges are thinned by many long, narrow flakes. The flat blade faces have large, random flake scars.
Haft Element
The base is concave, and typically thinned with multiple small edge flakes on one face and a large single flake on the other face. Some basal grinding occurs from shoulder to shoulder on most examples. The stem is lobed and rounded, and finely chipped on the edges.
Size
Length ranges from 40 to 63 mm. Width ranges from 22 to 35 mm. Thickness ranges from 3 to 6 mm. Stems range from 12 to 17 mm long and 18 to 26 mm wide.
Technique of Manufacture
Soft percussion flaking, followed by pressure retouching around the basal notch and serrated blade.
Material
Cresthull (1972) reported seven MacCorkle points from the Chance site on the Eastern Shore, with six made from chert/jasper and one chalcedony. In the area surrounding Zekiah Swamp on the lower Potomac, Wanser (1982) found just three MacCorkles, all rhyolite. In the Monocacy River drainage, 87% of 30 MacCorkle points were rhyolite and 13% quartzite (Kavanagh 1982). Chert is the predominate material for MacCorkles in the middle Potomac River Valley, but other local stones such as quartzite and rhyolite are also used (Hranicky 2002). In Delaware, bifurcate base points are commonly made from chert, jasper, and rhyolite (Custer 1996).
Discussion
The MacCorkle point is found east of the Mississippi from north Georgia to southern New York (Justice 1987). It is the earliest of the bifurcate types, which together form a continuum dating from perhaps 8250 to 6650 BC (calendar years), and maybe even later in the Northeast. Broyles (1971) sees the MacCorkle as a transitional type between the Kirk Corner Notched and the St. Albans. MacCorkles have a bifurcated stem that lobes further out to both sides than do St. Albans points; however, Anderson (1991) sees the MacCorkle as just a large variant of the St. Albans. Cresthull (1972) notes that the MacCorkles from the Chance site in Somerset County, Maryland have shallower basal and side notches than those illustrated by Broyles (1971). A similar point, the Nottoway River Bifurcate, was described by Painter (1970) in southern Virginia and North Carolina.
Defined in Literature
This type was originally defined from examples recovered at the St. Albans site in West Virginia (Broyles 1966, 1971).
References
1991 The Bifurcate Tradition in the South Atlantic Region. Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 7:91-106.
1998 An Introduction to the Early and Middle Archaic Occupations at Sandts Eddy. In The Archaic Period in Pennsylvania: Hunter-Gatherers of the Early and Middle Holocene Period, edited by Paul A. Raber, Patricia E. Miller, and Sarah M. Neusius. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg.
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.
1972 Chance (18SO5): A Major Early Archaic Site, Part 2. Maryland Archaeology 8(2):40-53.
1996 A Guide to Prehistoric Arrowheads and Spear Points of Delaware. Center for Archaeological Research, University of Delaware, Newark.
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.
1970 The Nottoway River Projectile Point. The Chesopiean 8(1):21-26.
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.