Lehigh/Koens-Crispin
Defining Attributes
The Lehigh/Koens-Crispin point is large and well-made, with a broad ovate to lanceolate blade. It has a distinctly short, contracting stem.
Chronology
The Lehigh/Koens-Crispin point dates to the Late Archaic period. Custer (1996) suggests a date range of 2500 to 1700 BC. Others give it a narrower range. Steponaitis (1980) places it between 3900 and 3700 BP (2450-2100 BC in calendar years), while Ritchie (1971) and Justice (1987) link it to the morphologically-similar Snook Kill point at 3800 to 3600 BP. Kinsey (1972) reports radiocarbon dates ranging from 1720 to 1470 BC (roughly 2100-1850 BC in calendar years). Wall et al. (1996) suggest that variants of the type could extend as late as the Middle Woodland.
Description
Blade
The blade size and shape can range from a long, narrow, lanceolate form to larger and broader ovate forms, and is often asymmetric. The blade is well-made and rather thin for its width. The edges of the blade are typically well-shaped to remove manufacturing irregularities.
Haft Element
The stem is generally short in relation to the blade length. Distinct shoulders form at the junction of the blade and stem, and they can be sharp or rounded. A majority of examples have contracting stems, although straight or even slightly expanding stems occur. The base is mostly excurvate or straight, thinned, and often ground.
Size
The Lehigh/Koens-Crispin point is usually fairly large. Length ranges from 44 to 120 mm. Width ranges from 30 to 48 mm. Thickness ranges from 5 to 12 mm.
Technique of Manufacture
The point was manufactured by soft percussion, with little or no pressure retouching. The flakes are very wide and overlap at the center of the blade.
Material
In a sample of 89 Lehigh/Koens-Crispin points from the lower Patuxent drainage, Steponaitis (1980) reported that 48% were quartzite, followed by rhyolite (30%), quartz (21%), and argillite (1%). In the area surrounding Zekiah Swamp on the lower Potomac, Wanser (1982) found that 51% of 126 Lehigh/Koens-Crispin points were rhyolite, with 26% quartz, 19% quartzite, and 4% chert or other materials. In the Monocacy River drainage, 80% of 38 Lehigh/Koens-Crispins were rhyolite, with 5% each of quartz, quartzite, chert, and argillite (Kavanagh 1982). Rhyolite Lehigh/Koens-Crispin points predominate in the middle Potomac River Valley (Hranicky 2002). In Delaware, they are commonly made from argillite, rhyolite, and jasper (Custer 1996).
Discussion
The Lehigh/Koens-Crispin point is found across the northeastern United States. It is one of a class of points known as “broadspears,” although this can be misleading, as many were used as knives.
The nomenclature of the Lehigh/Koens-Crispin point is confusing. Regional names for the type – such as Lehigh, Koens-Crispin, and Snook Kill – were proposed at various times, and first two names are now commonly combined. The regional variants are mostly distinguished by lithic material preferences (Kinsey 1972).
The Lehigh/Koens-Crispin overlaps in time with the Savannah River point, and the two share certain morphological similarities. In Virginia, two short-stemmed local variants of the Savannah River, named the Cattle Run (Geier 1996) and the Island Swamp (McAvoy and McAvoy 1997), have been defined, and they bear a resemblance to Lehigh/Koens-Crispin points.
Defined in Literature
The Leigh/Koens-Crispin point was first identified in 1916, but it was not defined until Cross (1941) named it after the Koens-Crispin site. Witthoft (1953) identified the Lehigh point, and Ritchie (1971) noted its similarity to the Snook Kill type. Coe (1964) stated that Savannah River-type points were found at the Koens-Crispin site. Kinsey (1972) combined the Lehigh and Koens-Crispin points into a single type.
Other Names Used
- Snook Kill
References
1964 The Formative Cultures of the Carolina Piedmont. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 54(5). Philadelphia.
1941 Archaeology of New Jersey, Vol. 1. New Jersey State Museum and the Archaeological Society of New Jersey, Trenton.
1996 A Guide to Prehistoric Arrowheads and Spear Points of Delaware. Center for Archaeological Research, University of Delaware, Newark.
1996 The Cattle Run Variant of the Savannah River Projectile Point Type. Quarterly Bulletin of the Archeological Society of Virginia 51(4):154-177.
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.
1972 Archeology in the Upper Delaware Valley: A Study of the Cultural Chronology of the Tocks Island Reservoir. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg.
1997 Archaeological Investigations of Site 44SX202, Cactus Hill, Sussex County. Virginia Department of Historic Resources Research Report Series n. 8, Richmond.
1971 A Typology and Nomenclature for New York Projectile Points. New York State Museum and Science Service Bulletin 384. Albany.
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.
1996 The Lithic Technology of the Trenton Complex. Trenton Complex Archaeology Report 13. The Cultural Resource Group, Louis Berger & Associates, East Orange, N J. Prepared for the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
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.
1953 Broad Spearpoints and the Transitional Period Cultures in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 23(1):4-31.